[BI]: Here's the lousy advice Apple is giving people with texting issues

[Doomer]

Just sent a text from my iPhone to my daughter who recently switched from an iPhone to a Samsung G4 and she got it just fine. We exchanged 5 or 6 messages and they all went thru just fine. Maybe this is a regional thing?

 

[bearxor]

I'm not really sure how they would handle this automatically, either. They would need a pipe from ever cellular provider to receive a deactivation signal from the carrier to the iMessage system to notify them when the iPhone is no longer in use. Or if the phone is damaged beyond repair or lost, to also get that signal when a new phone is activated on that same line, if it is not an iPhone.

And then for people who want to use it as mini-tablet or something, it can have the option to turn it back on again, maybe with a popup screen notifying them that iMessage has been disable due to deactivation. Seems like an awfully huge pain to go through, and I don't even know if the carrier's proprietary software would let them pipe that data to Apple easily. But the activation, number integration, etc. all works like a champ during setup, so I'm sure they could figure out a way.

Apple is entirely too careful with their product line for this to have "slipped by under the radar". The only thing I can't figure out is why they would actually do it because then it makes the iPhone look stupid, not so much the device that people switch to...

The only thing I can think of is that Apple simply never took in to account that someone who had an iPhone would ever want to switch from using an iPhone.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I'm not really sure how they would handle this automatically, either. They would need a pipe from ever cellular provider to receive a deactivation signal from the carrier to the iMessage system to notify them when the iPhone is no longer in use. Or if the phone is damaged beyond repair or lost, to also get that signal when a new phone is activated on that same line, if it is not an iPhone.

And then for people who want to use it as mini-tablet or something, it can have the option to turn it back on again, maybe with a popup screen notifying them that iMessage has been disable due to deactivation. Seems like an awfully huge pain to go through, and I don't even know if the carrier's proprietary software would let them pipe that data to Apple easily. But the activation, number integration, etc. all works like a champ during setup, so I'm sure they could figure out a way.

Apple is entirely too careful with their product line for this to have "slipped by under the radar". The only thing I can't figure out is why they would actually do it because then it makes the iPhone look stupid, not so much the device that people switch to...

Here's my best guess:

User A and B use iPhones w/ iMessage

• User A switches off iMessage.
• Apple sees iMessage as off. Therefore Apple will intercept future iMessages and auto-direct them to the phone #. If you ever switch phone #s, though, you have to update your iMessage profile, otherwise some other guy will continue to get your messages. However, this message makes it sound like Apple needs to forever be watching that iMessage address to redirect any incoming messages.

It's kinda messy, but it sounds like User B's phone is also responsible. User B's phone has no way of knowing the old channels of communication are gone. Just like if you're emailing back and forth with a friend using Hotmail, and they decide to switch to Gmail. The way to fix this is to start a brand new email thread and not to continue off the old one. Otherwise replies to to a black box or a dead e-mail inbox.


In many ways Apple *can* try to make the situation better, but at the end of the day, they can only do so much because User B's phone highly affects what User A experiences.


This is why I've been against outright integration of SMS and mobile messaging. The swim lanes need to be kept separate.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Thats why I wondered why you were bringing up hangouts up as having a similar problem.
Hangouts does it right. It amalgamates SMS and instant messaging at the front end (which is under the users control) rather than at the back end (where you have a lot less control).

I'm fine with it being brought into one thread as long as it is done on the device, not if everything gets diverted to a third parties servers first.

Thats a bit different than having them set up as the default on every device though isnt it?
You have to go out of your way to find those services, then sign up for them. By then you should know what you're getting yourself into and it was your informed choice to get involved.



Sounds like you've just described hangouts there.


In short I still don't know why you brought Android into this (unless it was as an example in how to do it properly). This is purely Apples SNAFU.

I didn't say that Hangouts suffers from the same problem, but I was highlighting the fact that many people were outraged at how Hangouts wasn't truly SMS integrated. What I'm saying is that the current implementation is sufficient, and that any further integration a-la iMessage is problematic.

The CyanogenMod example is actually problematic, because these services will never warn you of these communications challenges if you decide to switch away from those channels. WhisperPush sells itself based on privacy and security. Of course your average Joe will see that and go "Yeah I want privacy! Screw the NSA!" Without a clear cut way to de-register your number or opt out, or even a smart enough fall-back system, it's very likely you could run into a messaging nightmare. What works out for CM is that the # of users is small, and the # of WhisperPush users are even smaller. After all, look how long this iMessage issue took to surface and to make it to MSM outlets. How many millions of iMessage users and iPhone users are there? How long has it been since iMessage was rolled out?

 

[basslover1]

one thing I would like hangouts to do is to auto-switch to the method that the contact most recently used.

I thought it did that with the latest update?

EDIT: Just checked it, it only remembers the last method you used to send a message regardless of what the recipient sent back to you.

 

[s44]

And Apple admits some fault:
http://9to5mac.com/2014/05/22/apple...s-bug-fix-coming-in-a-future-software-update/

It's definitely not just a matter of turning it off on your own phone before you switch.

 

[Dari]

I threw up my notes on how to fix iMessage here:

http://catch42.pbworks.com/w/page/80676350/iMessage

Most of the time, the problem is that the user didn't turn off iMessage when they got rid of their iPhone. So when someone with an iPhone sends them a message, it's still going straight into their iMessage account. This is a crappy thing for Apple to do, but really, Apple has no way of knowing that you're not using iMessage anymore since it can be used on Mac computers, iPad tablets, iPod Touches, iPhones, etc. So if you still have the phone, go into Settings and turn iMessages off. If the phone is gone, you have to unregister the iPhone in your Apple Support Profile here:

https://supportprofile.apple.com/

That will tell Apple to stop routing iMessages from other iPhone users into your iMessage account, which defaults them back to SMS on other people's phones. Not knowing this little trick has caused an enormous amount of frustration for a lot of people. Apple obviously doesn't really care about telling you about it because if you're jumping ship, you're no longer their customer.

How the hell do you know this and not the Apple technicians?

 

[number29ag]

Confirmed now working when you switch off iMessage. Tried it this morning and other iPhone users now default to sending as SMS once iMessage is switched off on my phone.