Beeper Mini made Android users blue bubbles. Apple shut it down after only a few days.

Apple responds to the Beeper iMessage saga: ‘We took steps to protect our users’::Beeper, like Sunbird and Texts, sought to find a way to bring iMessage to Android users. Its app, Beeper Mini, worked well. But a few days after it launched, Apple took steps to shut it down.

  • @TurboDieselEnglish
    0•6 months ago

    Don’t have the article handy but I believe it was wired that reported on the decreasing contrast between the white text and green background across several iterations of iOS.

    Edit: WSJ from 2018. I can’t find a way behind the paywall. And Medium. Also from '18

    • @[email protected]English
      0•6 months ago

      Those articles don’t say what you said though.

      I’m asking for a source to your claims

      • @zeppoEnglish
        2•6 months ago

        The latter article doesn’t cite decreasing contrast ratios, but notes

        [Apple’s] guidelines state that you should strive for a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 between the text and background colors. Apple’s white text in a blue bubble (iPhone messages) shows a 3.5:1 contrast ratio, while the white text in a green bubble (non-iPhone messages) manages only a 2.1:1 contrast ratio, less than half the recommended minimum contrast

        • @[email protected]English
          0•6 months ago

          I saw that, but that doesn’t state what the other person is stating.

          We can ascertain no intent but they assert one as malice which is why I pressed their claim.

          • @zeppoEnglish
            1•6 months ago

            Do you deduce that Apple did that by accident and never noticed?

            • @[email protected]English
              0•6 months ago

              With no evidence to tell me they did it deliberately I can’t deduce anything, I could jump to conclusions or make assumptions.

              I’m not really in the business of that here though, someone made a claim and said there were articles about it then produced two articles which didn’t support their claims at all.

              It’s a lot easier to believe they did something then just didn’t give two fucks about fixing it since the colors had become ubiquitous than to believe they deliberately did it to get back at people with a handicap to drive them to use their phones, especially when iMessage itself doesn’t follow the guideline.

              Again, all I really care about in this thread is that someone who made bogus assertions about intent was unable to support it at all.

              • @zeppoEnglish
                1•6 months ago

                Sure, Apple never looked over this interface detail. I’m sure they just never noticed.

                • @[email protected]English
                  0•6 months ago

                  See here you are just speaking your bias, did you not read what I said or is your intent to just twist my words so you can respond with your narrative?

                  • @zeppoEnglish
                    1•6 months ago

                    Okay, you’re right. I’m going to go sit in the corner and pray. I’m sure Apple overlooked this detail because they’re just not really aware of basic attributes of one of their most widely used apps.