The whole green bubble thing has got to be one of the stupidest status symbol things I've seen in a long time. Though I have no doubt there are many of them. If anything, it's maybe a good life lesson that many supposed status symbols are breathtakingly stupid to care about.

I don’t believe it’s just status symbol - until the recent RCS implementation having an Android phone in your group text meant that photos/videos would be awful MMS quality.

>some supposed status symbols are breathtakingly stupid to care about.

All status symbols are stupid, that's part of the point. That has never mattered. It doesn't matter how stupid a symbol is, it can still have tangible effects on you and your life.

Humans are social animals first and foremost, and are not rational in any way. Tribalism is literally the point.

It's not the bubble color; it's that (early) iMessage groups were much better than SMS groups, and so if you added a greenie it resulted in a worse experience.

That's not so much the case anymore, from what I understand (even the "reactions") work decently well, now.

Possibly. My use of texting groups is relatively recent.

You're not entirely wrong but also not my nor Apple's problem. Things like universities can be status symbols but they're mostly not entirely status symbols. Plenty of other things like that too.

But if it's not bubble color, it will be the type of sneakers kids wear or whatever else is the fashion of the moment.

As if there was no bullying in any other age? Is Apple's walled garden really the source of this bullying? Teenagers can bully each other about anything.