Does Messages Consolidate Conversations in iOS 8?

[screensaver400]

A lot of us probably have multiple iMessage conversations open for the same person on our iOS devices, since there are at least four possibilities for everyone:
Your Phone Number - Their Phone Number
Your Phone Number - Their Apple ID
Your Apple ID - Their Phone Number
Your Apple ID - Their Apple ID

It's further complicated when an Apple ID has more than one email address associated with it.

OS X Mavericks's Messages app addressed this by consolidating multiple Messages conversations into a single thread, if the different Apple IDs and phone numbers were associated with the same contact.

Does iOS 8 do a similar consolidation?

 

[Surrix]

On iOS 8 beta 5, I still have two threads for the same contact, so sadly it doesn't. This has bothered me for years.

 

[mitchsaunders]

Yeah, iOS 8 doesn't do it for me. It works in Yosemite though how Mavericks has set it up. Annoys me a lot.

 

[bigjnyc]

this drives me absolutely bonkers. I can't believe Apple hasn't fixed this yet, I am really hoping they do by the time iOS 8 is ready for public release.

 

[newagemac]

I don't have this problem. All you have to do is set up Messages to use your phone number. And you must set up iMessage to text from your phone number by default. Especially on your Mac or iPad or you end up creating separate conversations. This was possible even before Yosemite and iOS8.

For example on a Mac, just go to Messages > Accounts and under Settings it should say "You can be reached for messages at: (xxx) xxx-xxxx" (whatever your phone number is). Then at the very bottom it should say "Start new conversations from: (whatever your your phone number is).

If you don't have a phone number selected in both places on ALL computers and devices, people will reply to your email address instead of your phone number and end up creating multiple conversations.

There really isn't any point in ever using an email address or Apple ID for texting unless you don't have a cell phone number at all. I don't give out my Apple ID for people to text me with either.

Even if you didn't have this set up right before, all you have to do is set everything up to start texting and replying from your phone number on all computers and devices and the problem will correct itself on its own eventually anyway.

 

[TitsLegendary]

And I'm pretty sure that if you're texting someone and they are using 2 or 3 different accounts then all you have to do is add those addresses to their contact card in your address book and it will consolidate them. If you already have 2 or 3 threads going then you have to delete them all and it will consolidate them going forward. I think that's the important part. If you don't "start fresh" then it won't keep them together.

 

[joejoejoe]

I don't have this problem. All you have to do is set up Messages to use your phone number. And you must set up iMessage to text from your phone number by default. Especially on your Mac or iPad or you end up creating separate conversations. This was possible even before Yosemite and iOS8.

For example on a Mac, just go to Messages > Accounts and under Settings it should say "You can be reached for messages at: (xxx) xxx-xxxx" (whatever your phone number is). Then at the very bottom it should say "Start new conversations from: (whatever your your phone number is).

If you don't have a phone number selected in both places on ALL computers and devices, people will reply to your email address instead of your phone number and end up creating multiple conversations.

There really isn't any point in ever using an email address or Apple ID for texting unless you don't have a cell phone number at all. I don't give out my Apple ID for people to text me with either.

Even if you didn't have this set up right before, all you have to do is set everything up to start texting and replying from your phone number on all computers and devices and the problem will correct itself on its own eventually anyway.

Unfortunately we can't control the actions of everyone in our contact books and so if someone doesn't have only their phone number enabled as an imessage recipient, you still end up with multiple threads

not to mention for people that travel frequently and dump phone numbers and sim cards left and right, it makes far more sense to tether imessage to an email address

And I'm pretty sure that if you're texting someone and they are using 2 or 3 different accounts then all you have to do is add those addresses to their contact card in your address book and it will consolidate them. If you already have 2 or 3 threads going then you have to delete them all and it will consolidate them going forward. I think that's the important part. If you don't "start fresh" then it won't keep them together.

has anyone confirmed that this works?

regardless, if this does work, apple should make it so the consolidation is automatic, even for old threads.

i don't like deleting my conversations and shouldn't have to if my mac can keep things together, so should my phone

 

[vincent.coronel]

Yah this annoys me also. Please let me know if we find a solution for this. I will try to send and receive with just my number on all my devices and hopefully it works

 

[GreyOS]

I may be thinking about this wrong so please correct me but...

I don't think apple could ever do this because the way you organise your contacts doesn't necessarily map to people's actual device set ups.

For example, you could have a contact on your phone which has person A's phone number and person B's Apple ID. The number and Apple id are not really linked in any way except on your phone. How can these conversations be merged? When you reply, which one should it go to?

Even without a silly contact like that, even if you have a contact with person A's number and person A's Apple Id, they may not link e.g. their iPad to their number cos their iPad is shared. If they message you from their iPhone and their iPad, how can these be merged into one conversation- where do you expect your reply in this conversation to go to? Would they be annoyed if you replied to their iPhone message by sending to their iPad?

 

[bigjnyc]

And I'm pretty sure that if you're texting someone and they are using 2 or 3 different accounts then all you have to do is add those addresses to their contact card in your address book and it will consolidate them. If you already have 2 or 3 threads going then you have to delete them all and it will consolidate them going forward. I think that's the important part. If you don't "start fresh" then it won't keep them together.

Doesn't work.

 

[iolinux333]

not to mention for people that travel frequently and dump phone numbers and sim cards left and right, it makes far more sense to tether imessage to an email

this so much THIS!!!!!


Some of us have phone numbers and sims flying in and out of the phone like birds. I dream of everything staying tidy in iMessage someday. I've been using Google Voice for years to tie it all together but Google hates Voice now as it's turned out to be a huge money pit for them and they're trying hard to slowly kill it without being sued into rubble.

 

[C DM]

this so much THIS!!!!!


Some of us have phone numbers and sims flying in and out of the phone like birds. I dream of everything staying tidy in iMessage someday. I've been using Google Voice for years to tie it all together but Google hates Voice now as it's turned out to be a huge money pit for them and they're trying hard to slowly kill it without being sued into rubble.

Seems like they are putting work into it by putting it into Hangouts and allowing for calls to be received and made, which is more than they did for a while.

 

[iolinux333]

Seems like they are putting work into it by putting it into Hangouts and allowing for calls to be received and made, which is more than they did for a while.

I disagree. Hangouts is a horrible reduced functionality app compared to all of the amazing third party apps they killed off in May. Keeping the calling ability going, but making it a pale shadow of what it was eliminated users while keeping them from getting sued.

 

[C DM]

I disagree. Hangouts is a horrible reduced functionality app compared to all of the amazing third party apps they killed off in May. Keeping the calling ability going, but making it a pale shadow of what it was eliminated users while keeping them from getting sued.

But they did do something themselves to support even some of it, which was more then they did themselves before. I'm not saying they are doing great now or anything, but it doesn't necessarily seem like they are just killing it off, as they would have done that in much simpler ways without investing anything into adding anything for it in Hangouts.

 

[iolinux333]

But they did do something themselves to support even some of it, which was more then they did themselves before. I'm not saying they are doing great now or anything, but it doesn't necessarily seem like they are just killing it off, as they would have done that in much simpler ways without investing anything into adding anything for it in Hangouts.

Again I disagree. Millions of people rely on GV functionality - and they agreed to let google mine their data in return. The key word is "rely." If Google just turns it off users suffer real damages and can sue for that to the tune of billions of bucks. Google wants it gone but they can't just make it go away. What they can do however is make it increasingly annoying to the point where so many are driven away and so few users left they can afford the remaining lawsuits. Like c'mon, they can't add a few lines of code to add caller ID like any other of the dozens of free apps that used to do this? Hangouts is purposefully bad.

 

[jakeenzo]

Personally I think if you're device can efficiently support the OS(which iPhone 7 more than will) then you should. Not updating just opens you up to potential security vulnerabilities and in general is just not good practice.

 

[chrfr]

Personally I think if you're device can efficiently support the OS(which iPhone 7 more than will) then you should. Not updating just opens you up to potential security vulnerabilities and in general is just not good practice.

The iPhone 7 and iOS 10 was two years from being released when this thread was started. iOS 8 was the current operating system released in 2014.

 

[jakeenzo]

The iPhone 7 and iOS 10 was two years from being released when this thread was started. iOS 8 was the current operating system released in 2014.

Whoops that was supposed to be posted in another thread My Bad