bubbles

Justice Department Accuses Apple of Exploiting Green Bubbles in Monopoly Lawsuit against iPhone

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But one category in particular caught our attention as the DOJ spends quite a bit of time talking about “green bubbles” and “blue bubbles.”When an iPhone user sends a message to another iPhone user, by default that message is sent using Apple’s iMessage protocol. If an iPhone user texts an Android user — and vice versa — iOS falls back to the older, less secure but universal SMS protocol. “Apple makes third-party messaging apps on the iPhone worse generally and relative to Apple Messages, Apple’s own messaging app,” the DOJ wrote in its lawsuit. At this point, you might think: wasn’t the RCS protocol supposed to level up SMS messaging and alleviate these pain points? It feels a bit odd that the DOJ is front-loading its antitrust lawsuit against Apple with the much talked about “green bubbles” vs. “blue bubbles” debate as there are far more serious and substantive issues.