“It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

Re:“It’s time for Apple to fix texting” by wincy on Tuesday August 09, 2022 @06:04PM (#32405002)

What? I don't even notice the difference in color except that I know not to use the tapback stuff when I'm texting an Android user. Does the green on white actually bother anyone? This seems like grasping at straws to me.

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Re:“It’s time for Apple to fix texting” by radiojasper on Tuesday August 09, 2022 @06:11PM (#32405119)

https://color.a11y.com/ContrastPair/?bgcolor=3cd882&fgcolor=...

The colours do not pass the A11Y standards, which means people with poor eyesight can't read the messages properly.

This did made me curious to see if the blue background passes - and it doesn't either. https://color.a11y.com/ContrastPair/?bgcolor=047aff&fgcolor=...

At least the blue background passes WCAG AA with larger sized text, while the green doesn't pass at all.

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Re:“It’s time for Apple to fix texting” by kelnos on Tuesday August 09, 2022 @06:18PM (#32405223)

The funny thing is that simply changing the text color to black causes the green-on-black to pass all those metrics, with the blue-on-black passing everything but WCAG AAA with the normal font (but still passes on the larger font).

(Same result using #64C567 for the green bubbles, which a sibling pointed out is the correct value.)

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Re:“It’s time for Apple to fix texting” by dymk on Tuesday August 09, 2022 @06:16PM (#32405178)

Wrong color, iMessage uses #64C567 for the green background, which has a higher contrast than the pair you supplied (1.85 versus 2.15)

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Re:“It’s time for Apple to fix texting” by mikewhy on Tuesday August 09, 2022 @06:30PM (#32405383)

I'm confused by all the mention of "what colour apple uses" in messages, message bubbles are a mask over a gradient

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Re:“It’s time for Apple to fix texting” by radiojasper on Tuesday August 09, 2022 @06:17PM (#32405203)

Still doesn't pass? Also thanks for pointing out the error!

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Re:“It’s time for Apple to fix texting” by applecrazy on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @12:58AM (#32407987)

There is an "Increase Contrast" option in Settings for visually-impaired users.

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Re:“It’s time for Apple to fix texting” by dymk on Tuesday August 09, 2022 @06:10PM (#32405096)

I've never heard this issue ever raised by anyone in real life.

I've only seen it brought up in internet tiffs about how Apple is using green message bubbles to "shame" non-Apple users. Which is similarly straw-graspy.

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Re:“It’s time for Apple to fix texting” by kelnos on Tuesday August 09, 2022 @06:21PM (#32405268)

Given how cruel and capricious children tend to be, it would not surprise me in the least that iPhone-using US teenagers ostracize peers with Android devices because of the green bubbles.

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Re:“It’s time for Apple to fix texting” by XorNot on Tuesday August 09, 2022 @06:43PM (#32405522)

While it doesn't surprise me, if it wasn't one thing it would probably be another.

Conversely if you're a parent with a distraught teenager being teased about this, I imagine that's cold comfort.

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Re:“It’s time for Apple to fix texting” by hnburnsy on Tuesday August 09, 2022 @07:06PM (#32405775)

they are... https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-apples-imessage-is-winning-...

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Re:“It’s time for Apple to fix texting” by dymk on Tuesday August 09, 2022 @09:03PM (#32406734)

During my highschool years, kids were bullied both for having and for not having both iPhones and Android phones.

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Re:“It’s time for Apple to fix texting” by hnburnsy on Tuesday August 09, 2022 @07:05PM (#32405770)

yes it is a thing, from January 2022...

Why Apple’s iMessage Is Winning: Teens Dread the Green Text Bubble

https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-apples-imessage-is-winning-...

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Re:“It’s time for Apple to fix texting” by tomjakubowski on Tuesday August 09, 2022 @07:13PM (#32405852)

That has nothing to do with the readability of the color scheme of your (outgoing!) texts though.

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Re:“It’s time for Apple to fix texting” by Phrodo_00 on Tuesday August 09, 2022 @08:04PM (#32406316)

Yeah, they're separate effects, but both triggered (because I wouldn't say teenagers being cruel is _caused_ by Apple) by the way Apple treats SMSs

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Re:“It’s time for Apple to fix texting” by TaylorAlexander on Tuesday August 09, 2022 @06:19PM (#32405234)

I would not discount visibility issues for anyone with a visual impairment. But at the same time there are a lot of issues listed on the page, with the color contrast only being one of them. You may consider the other usability issues more significant, but either way as a whole it seems to be a problem.

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Re:“It’s time for Apple to fix texting” by r00fus on Tuesday August 09, 2022 @06:53PM (#32405633)

Tapback works, too - it just appears to the non-iMessage receiver as an another SMS message with the text equivalent of the tapback emoticon.

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