A small design trick adopted by Apple makes conversations with Android users less pleasant.
Since the launch of iMessage, Apple has always taken care to distinguish users of its services from those with an Android smartphone.
Apple refuses to open its mailbox and put an end to the “green bubbles”
Owners of iPhone or iPad are therefore the “blue bubbles” and the others are represented by simple green bubbles in iMessage conversations, to clearly differentiate them.
Apple also refuses to support RCS, a messaging standard adopted by many operators and carried by Google, which would allow all participants in a group conversation to communicate. Instead, group chats are impossible with Android users, who only receive text messages, which makes reading difficult for all correspondents.
At the same time, Apple has employed another very subtle way to make the user experience more unpleasant when chatting with a loved one on Android.
A deliberate design choice, even if it means sacrificing accessibility
Designer Allen Hsu posted an article on his Medium space to explain how Apple uses colors and the interface of iMessage to degrade the user experience of its customers when they chat with a user who does not have an iMessage. iPhone.
If you use iMessage, the blue bubbles offer excellent readability with a high contrast ratio. Conversely, the shade of green, very light, used for SMS, offers a much more limited contrast and more difficult readability.
Proof of this is the WCAG test, which determines a score evaluating the accessibility of a web service, gives a good score of 3.91 for iMessage bubbles, against a mediocre 2.18 for green bubbles.
The designer continues his demonstration by taking two blue and green bubbles, and increasing the brightness of the two elements. If the iMessage bubble is less pleasing to the eye, it nevertheless remains more contrasted than the green bubble, whose text becomes almost unreadable.
Apple’s approach therefore seems indeed intentional, to favor its own services over the competition, even if it means sacrificing accessibility for its users, especially those with eye problems.
Source : Allen Hsu via Medium
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