> The blue background on messages sent between two iMessage users has to be one of the most brilliant vendor lock-in strategies. It is an artificial form of discrimination.
This is, always has been, and will always remain bullshit.
The problem isn't the blue vs green background. It would be the same if the backgrounds were purple and gold, red and gray, or just both blue.
The problem is the different capabilities between SMS and iMessage. And because those capabilities are different, it is useful and productive to communicate that in a clear, but unobtrusive way—like making their message bubbles different colors.
And when iMessage was introduced it was at a time SMS and MMS incurred extra charges, or, at best, came out of a fixed monthly allowance.
Making the user aware of whether they were using SMS/MMS or iMessage was actually a technically important feature so the user could understand if/how they would be charged.
If they control how SMS is received and displayed, they absolutely do control the featureset of SMS. On Android it's trivial to use different SMS apps, the receiver gets to decide how, if at all, they'll be separated.
Technically not in general but practically yes on iOS since it's either just SMS, MMS or iMessage on iOS instead of also RCS. That's a constraint they enforce on the colloquial SMS experience, it's limited to whatever they decide it is, and they decide that it's strictly old tech.
Saying they don't control SMS is like saying they don't control HTTPS or access to the web. Sure they don't get dictate the protocol itself, but they do control practically the singular implementation of it on their platform, heavily influence what people can do with it, and also control the entire software stack underneath. My iPad 3 is functionally useless despite being just as capable as it ever was (not very) because although it can still run apps, I'm only allowed to run whatever happens to still be on the app store.
Sure, if Apple wanted to, they could implement some kind of layer over SMS, using "hidden" characters sent with each message, that would let it act as if it has features like typing notifications and reactions. I'm...not 100% sure whether they could do the same with E2EE between iPhones, but let's say for the sake of argument they could.
That still doesn't change the situation between iPhones and Android phones. In fact, it makes it worse, because SMSes to Android phones would have all this garbage in them—but the main point is that Apple can't add any of that stuff to SMS between iPhones and non-iPhones.
And Apple has already committed to implementing RCS. However, I will be absolutely gobsmacked if RCS messages appearing in the Messages app show up with the same color as iMessage messages.
They will still be differentiated.
There will still be differences in featureset. (For one thing, Apple has, at least for now, said they will not be attempting to implement Google's fully proprietary E2EE extension for RCS.)
Some (shallow, petty) people will still use it as an excuse to shun other people.
And none of that will be because Apple is deliberately degrading the experience.
But they are deliberately restricting who can make SMS clients. Google also needs to open APIs for RCS as far as I know, but you can make an SMS client that acts as default. I used Signal for both at some point, no RCS but I could make a choice about how I want to interact with people over SMS.
This is, always has been, and will always remain bullshit.
The problem isn't the blue vs green background. It would be the same if the backgrounds were purple and gold, red and gray, or just both blue.
The problem is the different capabilities between SMS and iMessage. And because those capabilities are different, it is useful and productive to communicate that in a clear, but unobtrusive way—like making their message bubbles different colors.
Apple doesn't control the featureset of SMS.