Google uses Drake’s ‘Texts Go Green’ to urge iMessage RCS switch
The Android team at Google is once again attempting to convince Apple to adopt the RCS messaging standard and is using a Drake song to get its point across.
The company is channeling the Canadian rapper’s Texts Go Green song to complain about the long-standing phenomenon when iPhone users exchange messages with their counterparts on Android.
This would no longer be the case if the two mobile operating systems used the same RCS standard, which Google argues offers superior resolution for photos, support for larger file sizes and offers plenty of other benefits iPhone users would enjoy too.
Drake’s song is actually about the phenomenon where one iPhone users blocks another from contacting them via iMessage, so the messages are green instead of blue because they’re sent as texts. However, that hasn’t stopped Google leveraging the new song in a ‘lyric explainer video’ published to Twitter.
“The Android song Texts Go Green is a real banger. It refers to the phenomenon when an iPhone user gets blocked or texts someone who doesn’t have an iPhone,” a voice over says. “Either way, it’s pretty rough. If only some super talented engineering team at Apple would fix this. Because this is a problem only Apple can fix. They just have to adopt RCS, actually. It would make texting more secure too. Just sayin’ great track though.”
Google’s sarcastic video is the company’s latest attempt to get Apple to adopt RCS messaging this year with the company even going as far as to say it prompts “bullying”.
Android executive Hiroshi Lockheimer said in January: “Appleās iMessage lock-in is a documented strategy. Using peer pressure and bullying as a way to sell products is disingenuous for a company that has humanity and equity as a core part of its marketing. The standards exist today to fix this.”