Since the beginning of the year, Google has tried to publicly pressure Apple to adopt the GSMA’s RCS messaging protocol. The search giant’s campaign included everything from not-so-subtle jabs at I/O 2022 to lengthy Twitter threads from the head of Android. Now the feud has expanded with Drake.
In a tweet noted by 9to5Google, the Android Twitter account shared an “unofficial lyric explainer video” for “Texts Go Green,” the third track from the rapper’s latest album. In the song, Drake sings about a toxic relationship. Both the title and chorus of “Texts Go Green” refer to what happens when an iPhone user blocks someone from contacting them via iMessage. The service defaults to SMS and the blacklisted person loses all the benefits of iMessage, including read receipts if the other person had it enabled before.
Google calls the song “a real stunner” and says the “phenomenon” of green speech bubbles is “pretty rough” for both non-iPhone users and anyone who gets blocked. “If a super talented tech team at Apple were to fix this,” the company says in the video. “Because this is a problem that only Apple can solve. They should really just adopt RCS.”
The irony of Google’s video is that the meaning of “Texts Go Green” is not accurately explained. In the context of the song, iMessage’s incompatibility with RCS is a comfort to Drake. “Texts turn green, it hits a little different, doesn’t it?” he sings. “Know you’re missing the days when I held onto it / Know you’re in a house tonight, just thinking about it / I moved so long ago.”
But hey, whatever it takes for Apple to adopt RCS, right?
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