iMessage - Group Message Sends As SMS

I've been in a group iMessage since iOS 5 came out, and this is the first time this has happened.

Last night, I tried to send a rather long iMessage to the group (maybe 2-3 times the size of a normal text limit). It failed to send, and when it failed to send, it was green, not blue. My friends said they received it outside the group iMessage as an individual SMS, even though it showed up as not sent on my end.

Problem is, now, I can't seem to send any iMessages to the group (green button, not blue, so sends it as an SMS to everyone individually). I can still send an iMessage to individual people.

I've turned iMessage off and on again and no luck. If I delete the group conversation and straight a new group iMessage, it will let me send it, then any messages after that, it only lets me send them as an SMS!

Anyone else experienced something similar? How did you resolve it?

Turns out one of the guys in the group had turned off iMessage, that's why it was sending it as an SMS to everyone individually (4 of us in total). However, I'm confused as to why it was only me that was affected, the other 2 could still send iMessages in the group and I would receive them.

I think iMessage is still incredibly buggy and not implemented correctly at all.

lordofthereef said:

It certainly is buggy, but not implemented correctly? That implies that there is a better way to do it. When it works, it works well IME. I can't think of a better way for them to implement it.

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Well, there's the issue of phone numbers v email addresses. iMessages sent to my phone number won't appear on other devices that are email address based.

If I send someone an iMessage from an email based device and they reply from their iPhone, my iPhone only receives it when it has WiFi/3G. It won't come in as an SMS, compared to if the person had replied using my phone number as an iMessage - it would get sent as an SMS if my phone didn't have any internet connection.

Trouble is, combing iMessage with standard SMS messages causes issues like the above.

lordofthereef said:

This can all be resoloved. All that happens with a phone number iMessage is Apple's servers are notified that the number is an eligible iMessage recipient. I honestly think it is just buggy, as it doesn;t work all the time (but most of the time it does very well). If they can iron out the bugs, it should work exactly how it does now, when it works correctly, just 100% of the time.

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You're missing what I'm saying. By default, sending a message to another iPhone user goes by iMessage not SMS. Say I sent someone an iMessage from an iPad and they replied using an iPhone, it would be using my email, not phone number to reach me. So, if my phone didn't have any internet, it would never come in as an SMS. That's the main problem. If an iMessage fails to send, it gets sent as an SMS. But that's only if the iMessage created was using a phone number, not an email.

iMessage is great when everyone has 3G/WiFi. But the iPhone won't always have 3G/WiFi - any iMessages that get sent from another iPhone user to you using email instead of phone number won't get sent by SMS.

You can't combine email and phone number into the same iMessage. If someone sent me an iMessage from their iPad, then one from their iPhone, I would have two separate conversations, even though it is all under the one contact.

iMessage is great when everyone has 3G/WiFi. But the iPhone won't always have 3G/WiFi - any iMessages that get sent from another iPhone user to you using email instead of phone number won't get sent by SMS.

If Apple somehow combined phone number and email for iMessage, then at least if someone sent a message from an iPhone, it would definitely reach your iPhone, whether it came in as an SMS or iMessage. And all your other non-iPhone devices would receive the iMessage as per normal.

lordofthereef said:

In other words, one contact is supposed to always be one contact regardless where you are sending it from, by design. The reason it isn't working right, I think, is because of the numerous hiccups iMessage obviously has performing these tasks.

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Exactly - one contact should be one contact regardless of phone number or email being used. The issue with Apple's implementation is that they have chosen to keep them separate.

Also, combining iMessage and SMS is causing problems, regardless of being seaming-less to the user. The advantage of SMS is that it will always send if you have reception, regardless of whether you have 3G or WiFi. iMessage will try to send an iMessage by SMS if it fails to send through lack of internet, but only you used the contacts phone number, not email address.

iMessage should send an iMessage to both your email and phone number if you are using an iPhone to send it. That way, if the phone number is unable to receive an iMessage at that time (it checks that right now anyway) then it will send it as an SMS, even if other devices that user has has received the iMessage.