Senator Elizabeth Warren has tweeted a one-minute video in which she says that green texts are “ruining relationships” and that this is “just one of the dirty tactics that Apple uses to keep a stranglehold on the smartphone market.”
Sure, the world is on the brink of war, but let’s worry instead about green text bubbles.
Warren posted the video to show her support for the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple. (Likely after a 20-year-old intern showed her which button to push.) Oddly enough, Warren focused on Apple’s use of green text bubbles for Android users, which the DoJ says creates “social stigma.”
It’s time to break up @Apple’s smartphone monopoly.
Also, c’mon, let’s stop leaving green text people out of the group chats. It’s just not right. pic.twitter.com/pr61Idf9yK
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) April 18, 2024
“Many non-iPhone users also experience social stigma, exclusion, and blame for ‘breaking’ chats where other participants use iPhones,” the suit reads. It goes on to note that this is particularly powerful for certain demographics, like teenagers, who The Wall Street Journal reported two years ago “dread the ostracism” that comes with having an Android phone.
Apple for its part says this is simply the government trying to use the law to turn the iPhone into an Android device. The DoJ apparently doesn’t like the idea that people (teens) think the iPhone is cooler than Android.
Sen. Warren tweets that non-iPhone users are being excluded from important conversations – and claims that Apple has “a monopoly on smartphones.”
Green texts on iPhones, they’re ruining relationships. That’s right, non-iPhone users everywhere are being excluded from group texts, from sports teams chats to birthday chats to vacation plan chats. They’re getting cut out. Missing out on plans and conversations. And who’s to blame here? Apple.
That’s just one of the dirty tactics that Apple uses to keep a stranglehold on the smartphone market. Apple has used its monopoly on smartphones to lock Americans into services and amass billions of dollars in profits. Apple even takes a cut every time you use tap to pay and has blocked a new app that would have let Android users finally use iMessage and get those blue texts.
That’s why last month the Department of Justice sued Apple for its broad-based exclusionary conduct. And that’s the right thing to do. It’s time to break up Apple’s monopoly now.
Maybe once Sen. Warren saves the world from Apple’s evil green bubble-related plans they can take time to attend to less pressing matters, such as the eight-dollar breakfast sandwich from McDonald’s, or the four-dollars-a-gallon gas tank fill-ups we’re all faced with every day.
