'Green Bubbles and Blue Bubbles Want to Be Together' Says Samsung Ad Pushing Apple to Adopt RCS

Samsung today joined Google in attempting to convince Apple to adopt the Rich Communication Services or RCS messaging standard that Google has been pushing.


In a short ad that's a riff on Romeo and Juliet, Samsung features two smartphone interfaces texting each other. "Juliet" is the iPhone in the metaphor and her parents (aka Apple) won't allow for the adoption of ‌RCS‌. "What did green ever do to them? We're bubbles too," laments the "Romeo" Android smartphone. "And literally everyone wants us to be together. Ugh," writes Juliet.

It's ultimately a bit of a confusing ad, but Samsung makes it clear with the title of the video: "Green bubbles and blue bubbles want to be together." Samsung also includes the "Help Apple #GetTheMessage" tagline and hashtag that Google has been using for its ‌RCS‌ campaign.

Google has been hounding Apple about adopting ‌RCS‌ for several years now using ads, billboards, websites, social media campaigns, and more, but Apple has refused.

‌RCS‌, or Rich Communication Services, is a communication protocol designed by and adopted by Google. Google has been pushing Apple to implement support for ‌RCS‌, but Apple devices continue to support the older SMS protocol. Google claims that Apple is responsible for all the issues that Android and ‌iPhone‌ users have texting one another, including lack of encryption, broken group chats, pixelated pictures and videos, and the green bubbles.

Apple CEO Tim Cook in September 2022 said that ‌RCS‌ is not a priority for Apple and that it is not a feature that ‌iPhone‌ users are asking for.

Popular Stories

iPhone 16 Pro Sizes Feature

iPhone 16 Series Is Less Than Two Months Away: Everything We Know

Thursday July 25, 2024 5:43 am PDT by
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
Apple Intelligence General Feature

Apple Intelligence Now Available in New iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia Developer Betas

Monday July 29, 2024 10:07 am PDT by
Apple is today providing developers with the first betas of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, with the new software introducing an early version of the Apple Intelligence features. These new betas will be in testing alongside the current iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia 15 betas. Developers can choose whether to opt into the new betas with Apple Intelligence, or stay on the ...
Apple Intelligence General Feature

Report: Apple Intelligence Delayed to iOS 18.1 in October

Sunday July 28, 2024 11:52 am PDT by
Apple Intelligence will miss its initial expected launch date to give Apple more time to fix bugs, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. According to individuals with knowledge about Apple's plans, the company now plans to start rolling out Apple Intelligence in software updates by October, arriving several weeks after the launch of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. This means that Apple...
T Mobile Generic Feature Pink 1

T-Mobile Sued for Breaking Lifetime Price Guarantees

Friday July 26, 2024 2:44 pm PDT by
T-Mobile customers have filed a lawsuit [PDF] against the carrier, alleging that it failed to honor a guarantee not to raise the prices of select cellular plans. The lawsuit, first spotted by Wired, claims that back in 2017, T-Mobile advertised several of its plans with a price lock, but then went on to increase prices starting in May 2024. "T-Mobile ONE customers keep their price until...

Top Rated Comments

fwmireault Avatar
11 months ago
It's so shocking how people here are genuinely opposed to better interactions between iPhones and Androids. I don't understand that. SMS is terribly limited and outdated, and not E2E encrypted. And it's not like Androids are going away, so why keep the experience this bad on iMessages?

Not that I think this ad campaign will have any effect on Apple at all, but that doesn't mean that Apple should do nothing on improving communication standards on iPhone
Score: 55 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Novaoblivion Avatar
11 months ago
I really don’t understand these ads. Apple isn’t going to care about them at all, and if anything Samsung/Google is just pointing out an annoyance of using their product ?‍♂️
Score: 50 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Starflyer Avatar
11 months ago
The Green Bubble stigma must really be hurting Samsung.
Score: 49 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mnsportsgeek Avatar
11 months ago
Do we though?
Score: 47 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zach-coleman Avatar
11 months ago
I want RCS, but not Google’s proprietary RCS which is unfortunately the only thing currently on the market.
Score: 39 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nutmac Avatar
11 months ago
I want Apple to support RCS, but only if RCS gets its act together. My list of complaints:

* Interoperability between carriers and Android phones is still problematic.
* Google Messages probably has the best overall implementation of RCS, but many phones are preloaded with alternate RCS client. And most don't bother to change the client. It doesn't help that Google has a confusing messaging client strategy.
* RCS should use IP (data), not SMS or carrier's backhaul. I should be able to send RCS to anyone on the planet without fear of additional charge (other than data).
* Depending on the implementation, end-to-end encryption is either missing or only partially implemented (e.g., group chats).
Score: 36 Votes (Like | Disagree)