It seems unlikely to have that effect when the recipient presumably communicates with people who have other brands of phone, from whom they receive better looking media.
I mean, it certainly has that effect. The in group "knows" your phone sucks and will shame you into getting an iPhone. That's the idea and it's probably worked millions of times.
Just doesn't seem plausible to me. If Alice gets low-quality images from Bob and higher-quality images from Charlie, her most likely assumption if she's not sophisticated enough to be aware of the cause is that Bob's phone has a bad camera.
I've literally experienced this first hand. At least three times I've been told that I should get an iPhone when I pointed this out. You're giving people way too much credit for being rational
Hey that video you sent me is tiny. I can't even tell what's going on
Dude when are you going to get an iPhone? iMessage works great. Janky Android phones can't even receive videos?
Wouldn't surprise me at all if they'd hired psychologists to figure out the best way to make conversations like that happen
I have no doubt about the part where iPhone fans waste no opportunity to tell someone else they should get an iPhone. It's the other side of the argument that falls flat: Alice receives video from Charlie that's perfectly fine, but Bob's iPhone sends a pixelated mess, and Bob says the iPhone is better?