Apple Launches Web Tool to Deregister Phone Numbers from iMessage

[cookiesnfooty]

Those of us who have had the features you love on the iPhone 6 and 6+ for years already are currently enjoying the features you will get on the iPhone 7. We also enjoy a thing called freedom, and those of us who understand the concept do not consider "freedom from porn" a type of freedom, quite the opposite actually. See we can add new features to the products we already own at any time, while Apple will forcibly prevent you from doing so because they only make money when you buy new hardware.

But usually the version Android has is a sloppy attempt but Apple introduce a much cleaner and refined version.

 

[samcraig]

But usually the version Android has is a sloppy attempt but Apple introduce a much cleaner and refined version.

It's possible he was talking about some other features - like a larger screen and nfc capabilities.

 

[H2SO4]

But usually the version Android has is a sloppy attempt but Apple introduce a much cleaner and refined version.

I knew someone would post something like that sooner or later. In case you can’t tell I think it’s a crap reason/answer.

Ok, so let’s go back to MMS or copy & paste for example, we have a choice of;
1. Apple doesn’t have the feature at all, (and they and a whole heap of fanboys tell you that you don’t need it either).
2. Competitor has a working example that isn’t as polished as it could be but works fine.
3. Apple release a viable option in good time and improve it all along to where we are today.

Where would you rather be?

 

[mi7chy]

That's why I avoid proprietary messaging and use free SMS with Google Voice.

 

[gremond]

same here.

this is comically amateurish

Same thing for me (Argentina).

 

[wookiee2cu]

Why do we need this ? I didn't think anyone would be foolish enough to want to switch to another brand after using an iPhone 6 or 6+ .

Because people got tired of Apple saying the larger screen was dumb and people don't know better. They finally caved in and built a larger device but the funny thing is that a majority of the features and specs that are in the iPhone 6 are the same as the Nexus 4… which was released back in 2012. Way to be innovative Apple.

 

[jamesarm97]

Prefect timing. Had read a FB post from a friend that just switched from an iPhone5 to a Galaxy Note and could send text messages but none of her "apple" friends could reply (she would never get the reply). Sent her this link today and she is all fixed and receiving messages now.

 

[Gutwrench]

This is several years over due. It is sad it took a law suit for apple to fix the basic flaw in their system making like hell if you wanted to leave iOS. It showed apple's shear arrogance that they thought no one would want to leave. This should of been done very early on and code wise is fairly easy to do unless your db designed is complete and utter crap.

One simple SQL statement is all it should of taken and then the code to fire up.

Delete from phonenumber where number =?.
Something like that. Nothing crazy as it should be in a separate table. Workaround is set said phone number to "" or null.

Oh come on. Deleting a row from a table isn't complicated so the thought it would be that simple only indicates we don't know the whole story. Maybe Aople was being arrogant, I don't know, but I doubt it has anything whatsoever to do to with their SQL skills being inferior to yours.

It was amusing and a tad embarrassing to see you include a sample script. Oh and glancing at your workaround...the phone number is likely the key on your example table so you'd actually set the key to NULL? Good lord. Primary key constraints and foreign key constraints would stop you. Furthermore that column would most likely be an integer. So good luck with trying to set it to blanks.

 

[Glideslope]

I actually agree. I def have no idea how it works. (actually if you have a link that explain it, I'd love to read about it.) my issue it with the problems that arise when one party stops using iMessage. there's gotta be a solution to it. I figured apple should have an internal ID that links to the number or emails but I'd love to find out how it's actually designed.

My rant was not directed at you personally. It was the just the same old "Apple is the problem crap." Your concerns are valid. It's just that it really is a War in the Tech Field right now. All of Apple's focus is the iOS, and 10.10 user experience. They bring users into the Ecosystem along with their Credit Cards. Close to a Billion now. You saw a small glimpse into the Black Hole with the GT documents. " Put on your Big Boy Pants." When Apple enters into a negotiation don't think for a minute the other party is not aware of the one billion cards on file. The iMessage / Android Message snafu was a glimpse into the future. There is a reason the Govt. wants to look into the "Unique Entity Chip." It's an amazing piece of architecture.

Take Care.

 

[PandaGeneral21]

No problem here

I can see the frustration but back in July of 2012 I switched to blackberry for about 8 months, and I never experienced any issues and to top it off my iPhone had a cracked screen so I never actually shut iMessage off. Maybe it was a fluke or maybe it only caused issues with Android but I never had issues with texting another iPhone from my blackberry.

 

[poppy10]

It's outrageous that they took so long to fix this. When I switched from iPhone to an Android phone after four years as an iPhone user, it was so hard to get any text messages from my iPhone-using friends. I had to text them individually to ask them to delete any old message threads to stop texts being sent as iMessages. Eventually I had to delete my Apple account as everything else I tried failed - still had so many SMS messages being 'hijacked' by Apple and turned into iMessages which I couldn't receive.

Whatever happened to the promise of iMessage being an open cross-platform standard anyway?

 

[C DM]

This tool is not overdue, it is NOT even required!

Is people so dumb? How hard is it to disabling iMessage before transfering the sims. Common sense people.

You can also disable iMessage from your phone:

Settings -> Messages -> iMessage

The SMS tool is just for those people who don't have access to an iPhone anymore.

And there is a part of the problem--for quite a few that didn't/doesn't actually work for some reason.

 

[poppy10]

Is people so dumb? How hard is it to disabling iMessage before transfering the sims. Common sense people.

It's not really common sense. Hardly intuitive for people to know they need to switch off iMessages, and even the process for doing that is not particularly clear. For people (like me) that sold their iPhone they had no way of disabling iMessages after the fact

 

[C DM]

Lol, I have an GS5 and 5C and switch back and forth multiple times a week.
Number of times I needed to get help turning off iMessage: 0.

I can see the frustration but back in July of 2012 I switched to blackberry for about 8 months, and I never experienced any issues and to top it off my iPhone had a cracked screen so I never actually shut iMessage off. Maybe it was a fluke or maybe it only caused issues with Android but I never had issues with texting another iPhone from my blackberry.

Some people don't run into some issues, other people do. It doesn't mean that the issue isn't there or doesn't need to be addressed in some way.

----------

There is no design flaw here. WhatsApp and other messaging services can't reroute messages to ex-users too, say if those users join iMessage or Wechat.

Even with this new tool, the sender will still need to turn on SMS to deliver to other messaging platforms. Or have both senders and receivers join another messaging service.

It is most definitely not a day one thing. It's a user problem.



Fixing that problem has to be scheduled amongst other tasks. And of course require much testing together with all those changes.

The flaw is really in not quite understanding how iMessage and SMS work and what the actual issues that people have been experiencing with all of this. Analogies that aren't really applicable make that flaw somewhat more evident. But seems like it's been covered quite a bit in many other posts in the thread that those who are interested can truly understand it all correctly.

 

[John.B]

Still waiting for the tool or website to consolidate iTunes accounts, that Tim Cook promised months ago...

 

[TimelessOne]

Oh come on. Deleting a row from a table isn't complicated so the thought it would be that simple only indicates we don't know the whole story. Maybe Aople was being arrogant, I don't know, but I doubt it has anything whatsoever to do to with their SQL skills being inferior to yours.

It was amusing and a tad embarrassing to see you include a sample script. Oh and glancing at your workaround...the phone number is likely the key on your example table so you'd actually set the key to NULL? Good lord. Primary key constraints and foreign key constraints would stop you. Furthermore that column would most likely be an integer. So good luck with trying to set it to blanks.

The issues falls backs to basic DB design.
Correct design is you have a Unique ID you use (often times a guid or rowID) an ID your user uses which is not the same as yours.
Internally you use your ID. This prevents a mess of issues from happen.

No matter how you slice it the 3 years it took to fix this is unacceptable. If it was not relatively simple to fix then Apple screwed up with piss poor design on the back end and even then it should not of taken very long to do it.

Apple should of jumped on this as soon as it was reported as it is a MASSIVE design oversight in how it screws people up. Now I can see why Apple choose to no bother this basic flaw and I can see it is some of the bad parts of Steve Jobs in the company. It is the idiot mindset that you never want to leave Apple and if you do we will make it as painful as possible.

 

[TechGod]

But usually the version Android has is a sloppy attempt but Apple introduce a much cleaner and refined version.

Nope...

 

[Gutwrench]

The issues falls backs to basic DB design.
Correct design is you have a Unique ID you use (often times a guid or rowID) an ID your user uses which is not the same as yours.
Internally you use your ID. This prevents a mess of issues from happen,

You must be Joe Celko. Thanks for the db education.

 

[ksuyen]

Anyway, since iMessage basically hijacks your phone number without asking or even informing the user it's perfectly feasable that many people send messages like they've always done without even realizing that they're using Apple's proprietary system.

Talking of dumb, what about people who come up with simplistic solutions that don't work if a phone is stolen or lost

I didn't hear people complain when Apple implemented iMessage and saving $$$ in sms messages fees.

 

[C DM]

I didn't hear people complain when Apple implemented iMessage and saving $$$ in sms messages fees.

That doesn't mean that some feature that is really good can't have its issues and/or that those issues should be overlooked and not dealt with (and promptly) just because overall the system is beneficial.

 

[jont-fu]

Or they could have just had you login with your iCloud account and de-register any iPhone on the account instead of using the phone number.

I was thinking of that too, but you don't need an iCloud account to use iMessage. For example my girlfriend doesn't have an iCloud account but iMessage still works for her automagically (except for at least one image I sent her and it apparently just disappeared).

 

[5232152]

What do they do when they eventually come back to iPhone? Un-Deregister?

What makes you think we come back?

 

[viizi]

We would like Apple to be held accountable for its deliberately malicious actions that personally inconvenienced us. Not only has that not happened, but Apple waited until we were so pissed off that people filed a class action lawsuit to fix the problem.

ok enjoy your negative day

 

[kaielement]

Tried this, waited half an hour, then tried to text my phone from my wife's iPhone. Still no luck. It automatically comes up with "iMessage" as the type of message she's sending. And when she hits Send, it just says that it failed. She can then click "Send as Text Message", which works, but she has to do that for every single text message. It never resets back to plain text messages.
I expect that deleting the contact might work, but once again, that is not a solution. The solution should be between me and Apple, and not something my friends and relatives have to bother with.
I did try deleting the phone number from the contact and re-sending. Still no luck.
This is really so abysmal. At this point, I'm going to recommend that my wife not get an iPhone when she upgrades. Apple's broken the primary use for a phone: communication.

Make sure in her messaging setting that send as sms is turned on. It's a common for people to turn that off for some reason. I think most people just assume everyone has an iPhone lol. I see it a lot with my customers and 99.999999% of the time turning that on fixes the problem. (I sell cell phones for a living)

 

[samcraig]

I didn't hear people complain when Apple implemented iMessage and saving $$$ in sms messages fees.

What a completely irrelevant response.