Apple still uses old SMS tech when texting with Android, causing a terrible experience for everyone: pixelated photos, blurry videos, group chat issues, and lack of encryption, etc. So, in September, during Apple’s major event, we introduced the world to the iPager: a device designed to expose Apple’s outdated tech with a frustrating experience everyone could understand, distributed to fans and influencers to help people change their perception. Not only did we achieve that, but we also changed the future of Apple's messaging system, which has finally announced that it will adopt RCS in 2024 after succumbing to popular pressure.

It’s an iPhone vs. Android world. And while Android is a bigger brand globally and used in the majority of phones worldwide, in the U.S. Apple is the clear leader, and considered a status brand.

And because most people in the U.S. use phone-native texting apps instead of messengers like WhatsApp, there’s a big issue for Android users here: “green bubbles”.

Apple runs two messaging systems. One is iMessage, which only works in messaging between iPhones and it's a great experience. The other is SMS- exclusively used to talk to Android phones and is tech that hasn’t really been upgraded since the 90’s. This is obviously littered with issues and lacks lots of modern texting comforts, and Android is blamed.

As a result, Android users face a lot of stigma and it often feels like Apple is the only game in town if you don’t want to be socially ostracized. The stats are crazy, and paint a sad picture:

70% of U.S. singles would rather date an iPhone user than an Android user

70% of U.S. Gen-zers say they would never own an Android. “A green message — anyone with an Android — throws off the entire chat, because now the whole thing has to be SMS,”

It might seem small, but especially for younger generations who do a majority of the communication over text, “green bubble” issues are a big deal. This could all be avoided if only Apple upgraded to industry-standard RCS.

In the U.S., iPhone holds a dominant 57.93% market share, with Gen Z and Millennials already heavily skewed towards iPhones, according to Statista. While native messaging like iMessage or Google Messages is the norm, communication between Apple (blue bubbles) and Android (green bubbles) is notoriously problematic. Apple intentionally downgrades messages from Android (originally RCS) to outdated SMS, causing pixelated media, different bubble colors, lack of encryption, and other issues. This leads most Americans to believe it's an Android problem, creating a negative perception of Android and its green bubble users. For years, Apple has resisted upgrading their outdated tech, perpetuating this cultural stigma. To educate users and pressure Apple, the iPager was created: a device exposing the outdated messaging tech Apple still employs.

In September 2023, with all eyes on Apple's latest innovation, we capitalized on the hype with a powerful stunt: the iPager. This mock Apple product highlighted the irony of Apple clinging to 30-year-old pager technology in their modern iPhones. The iPager effectively exposed Apple's outdated SMS use, shifting public perception of both companies. This campaign rallied consumers behind our cause, ultimately pressuring Apple to finally adopt the industry-standard RCS.

Apple has staked its reputation on innovation, advancing tech and design on behalf of the user through amazing advancements like the iPod or iPhone even. Every year they unveil their newest creations.

But lately their latest so-called advancements have been met with an increasing amount of underwhelming ‘are they serious?’ memes and reactions. There was an opportunity for us to leverage that vulnerability.

Apple is hostage to their own innovation reputation. If they’d done everything to create that image, perhaps they’d do anything to protect it if exposed— even upgrading to RCS.

Our eye opening insight: One's greatest strength can be one's greatest weakness

Our strategy: Leverage Apple’s reputation against them.

Off this, we launched Apple’s least innovative product, the iPager, and dressed it up with the same hype and fanfare they use to make their less-than-new launches seem exciting and asked consumers to help Apple “Get the Message”.

Similar to the pagers of the 90’s, we created the iPager: a device to show that Apple still uses an old technology in its devices: the SMS. We used the launch week of the new iPhone 15 in September to introduce our iPager. Several units were created, which we sent to influencers, who were able to explain to consumers who was really to blame for the poor messaging functionality - changing the perception of Android. Besides targeting iPhone users, our secondary approach involved collaborating with three distinct types of creators to expand our reach to a broader audience. These categories included Technology, Lifestyle, and Comedy. Our approach focused on educating the audience about the differences between RCS and SMS, emphasizing that the issue is not Android’s fault and maintained our comedic tone of voice to contribute to the campaign’s lightheartedness and to increase engagement.

The campaign delivered undeniable success. Public awareness of the SMS issue surged, leading to a 17.6% increase in positive sentiment towards Android and a 9.6% rise in negative sentiment towards Apple. The launch video became the most viewed in Android's history, the campaign garnered a staggering 1.2 billion impressions, and engagement on the Android channel skyrocketed by over 1000%. Just two months after the iPager launch, Apple finally bowed to pressure and publicly announced their adoption of RCS in 2024. Articles in major publications like the New York Times even credited the campaign as a major factor in this decision. The iPager effectively exposed Apple's outdated technology, shifted public perception, rallied consumers, and ultimately forced Apple to embrace the industry standard: RCS.

When you think of Apple and the early days of ‘Think Different’, they were all about challenging the status quo and advancing tech and design on behalf of the user. With things like the iPod, they created culture-defining, leading innovation and over time have become one of our most beloved brands. However, their recent “innovations” have been anti-climatic and underwhelming. Introducing the color 'yellow' for example, was one of their most recent so-called "innovations".

With the launch of iPager, we hit the market just as Apple was launching their new iPhone and adopted the same look, feel, and tactics Apple uses to hype up their not-so-new new releases. We tapped into the fanfare surrounding what people hoped would be exciting new features from Apple, and subverted expectations by exposing Apple for using outdated tech.