Apple is Building iMessage into OS X Lion's iChat

[Cougarcat]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8J2)

I hope Apple opens up the iMessage protocol at some point. It would be nice to have it in Adium and Pidgin too. Of course, Apple said over a year ago that they'd open FaceTime, but that still hasn't happened yet...

 

[blacktape242]

i can't WAIT for this to happen!!! i have been hoping this would come about for some time~ IM VERY EXCITED!!!!!!

 

[Blakjack]

Not until Google has MMS...

I email all of my pics. No one I know has a phone that doesnt have email

 

[jordanwar]

hope its available for snow leopard

 

[dagamer34]

Google voice text? I need to do some research. Part of the reason my wife's miffed about my going from Android to iPhone is that she can't use her Blackberry to message my iPhone except through SMS, which stinks due to the 140 character limit. Up to now, we've been using Google Talk, but I always thought hat wasn't push on an iPhone.

Is there a good way for a BB to talk to an iPhone that I don't know about?

(and sorry if I'm threadjacking)

m.

WhatsApp let's you send text, images, video, and audio for free.

 

[utwarreng]

Now just make a Windows version of iChat so I can use it at work. (Unenlightened employer doesn't give me a Mac option )

 

[AAPLaday]

Good news. SMS is looking more and more dated all the time. Its still universal so will stay around for a few years but these new services (iMessage/chat, Whatsapp, Skype, liveprofile etc) are superior.

 

[timsutcliffe]

Good

Makes sense, and it might mean people I know actually use iChat.

Integrating it with FaceTime also seems like a sensible idea.

 

[mazz0]

I still don't see the point in system specific messaging systems! Why use this when you could use Trillian to talk to people on any system?

 

[Pooshka]

The best news this week IMO.

 

[Inconsequential]

YES!

Exactly what I was waiting for.

Good times

 

[leesmith2]

I wish they'd called iMessage, iChat on iOS. It just feels like a much better name.

Or drop the iChat moniker on OSX and call it iMessage.

 

[iOSDave]

Awesome. Always thought it was silly to pay extra for SMS texts. Love it when Apple uses its coolness to bring services to the masses that are better than the mainstream way of doing things. Lots of other apps/services have done the same thing, but when Apple does it themselves, everyone will start using it.

 

[Hellhammer]

Wouldn't make any sense if iChat didn't get this feature. Looking forward to this though, texting is so 2000s.

 

[bushido]

this would be great, i always wanted WhatsApp on my mac

 

[rbgaynor]

While they're at it, I'd love to see Apple make an iMessage app for Android.
Seriously.

And a Windows desktop client. Seriously, if they want this to have real legs Apple needs to think beyond just their own platforms (think iTunes).

 

[AppleInLVX]

WhatsApp let's you send text, images, video, and audio for free.

Thank you. I'll check it out. Poopy that it's free for BB and $0.99 for iPhone. Le sigh.

 

[Pooshka]

Q: do you think we'll get it with the iOS 5 release?

 

[AdeFowler]

Lots of people speaking as if it's happened… I'm hopeful but won't hold my breath.

 

[Cougarcat]

Thank you. I'll check it out. Poopy that it's free for BB and $0.99 for iPhone. Le sigh.

If you don't care about video or audio, look into Textie. It's free.

 

[kasei]

This is great news. Being able to jump from the iPhone to an iPad and keep the conversation going will be so convenient.

 

[FSMBP]

I still don't see the point in system specific messaging systems! Why use this when you could use Trillian to talk to people on any system?

Because Trillian needs to be installed & a screenname. iMessage is built into iOS...people will be using it & not even know it. Yes, there are 10-20 great Instant Messaging apps available that work on BB, Android, iPhone - however, the user must actively install it & have an account.

iMessage will be on every single iOS 5 device without the using having to download it.

It may not be the best solution, but I just like anything that will catch on & take away the insane SMS fees/pricing.

 

[acfusion29]

I wish they'd called iMessage, iChat on iOS. It just feels like a much better name.

agreed.

i also wish they separated iMessage from the Messages app. but we can't all have everything we want

 

[jtara]

FYI, The "iMessage protocol", is actually based on XMPP, an open standard.

The applicable extension for the delivery notification feature is XEP-0184.

 

[Astro7x]

Why? You have a smartphone. Find one of the free apps like TextFree that give you a phone number and have your non iOS friends use that phone number to text you.

I've found that it's very hard for people to understand that they need to text a second number instead of my main number. I've just given up on it. People will respond to my texts from my free texting number if I initiate it, but almost everyone first contacts me by texting my main number.


So has there been any word on how this will work in terms of how you will contact a specific device? Unfortunately Apple hasn't been able to simplify the log in process as much as I'd like it to be, but for good reason. It gets a little confusing when you can have an Apple ID for the store, another e-mail and username for Game Center, another login for FaceTime, and then probably another one for iMessage. While I appreciate it since I can give my old iDevice to my wife and do things like use my iTunes account but not my Facetime account, I sort of wish I had the option for a single log in for all services.