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How Important is iMessage to You?
- Thread starter El3ctronics
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It's very useful for me. MOST of those whom I text have an iDevice of some sort. I love to see the blue iMessage bubble and the satisfaction of knowing when an iMessage has been "Delivered". Also, the ability to see when the other person is typing, and being able to send whatever messages regardless of the length, pics, videos, etc over WiFi makes it a HUGE win in my book!
Nowadays, seeing the green text bubble, it just feels like it's sort of disconnected from the iOS ecosystem. I can tell that I sent a message but can't tell if it was received, and have to remain conscious of character count. That said, I'm still hanging onto my grandfathered 1500 texts/month plan, and I probably don't use a 3rd of that amount per month.
I have an iPhone 4S. My Mom has a 3rd generation iPad. My Dad, cousin, sister in law, and several of my associates have an iPhone 4, and a few of my associates even still have a 3GS. Plus I got my lady a 4th gen iPod Touch for Christmas last year so we could FaceTime and iMessage.
Poor thing went to verizon early last year (before we met) for her phone upgrade. Curious about the iPhone 4, they suckered her into a motorola droid 2, and the phone has proven to be an absolute nightmare for her ever since. She's since had to get 2 replacement units from verizon due to software issues. It kept rebooting and crashing on its own, and would even send phantom texts to random contacts. Even the verizon guy said he'd never seen anything like it when she took it in the first time! Needless to say, she appreciates the ease, stability, and fluidity of iOS, and basically uses her iPod Touch as her primary media device. Only uses droid 2 for phone calls and to text non-iOS heads. She can't wait until upgrade eligibility comes her way!
Nowadays, seeing the green text bubble, it just feels like it's sort of disconnected from the iOS ecosystem. I can tell that I sent a message but can't tell if it was received, and have to remain conscious of character count. That said, I'm still hanging onto my grandfathered 1500 texts/month plan, and I probably don't use a 3rd of that amount per month.
I have an iPhone 4S. My Mom has a 3rd generation iPad. My Dad, cousin, sister in law, and several of my associates have an iPhone 4, and a few of my associates even still have a 3GS. Plus I got my lady a 4th gen iPod Touch for Christmas last year so we could FaceTime and iMessage.
Poor thing went to verizon early last year (before we met) for her phone upgrade. Curious about the iPhone 4, they suckered her into a motorola droid 2, and the phone has proven to be an absolute nightmare for her ever since. She's since had to get 2 replacement units from verizon due to software issues. It kept rebooting and crashing on its own, and would even send phantom texts to random contacts. Even the verizon guy said he'd never seen anything like it when she took it in the first time! Needless to say, she appreciates the ease, stability, and fluidity of iOS, and basically uses her iPod Touch as her primary media device. Only uses droid 2 for phone calls and to text non-iOS heads. She can't wait until upgrade eligibility comes her way!
Not at all important. As of now, only 3 people I talk to have an iPhone. My girlfriend, parents, and the majority of my friends are on Droids or dumb phones, so iMessage has essentially no use for me.
I love it. I work in the basement of a dormitory building and we have no 3G coverage whatsoever, iMessage allows me to still text my friends 
imessage is critical to me. Everyone in my family and everyone I work with have iOS, and I use it to have conversations on my phone, iPad, and MBP. It's one major reason I have not gotten a HOX even though I want one.
I haven't come to rely on iMessage that often. A lot of people I know have iPhones but not everyone and seeing when they are typing seems to be the only benefit of it (although trivial).
I have unlimited texts so it doesn't matter there either. I couldn't do away with texts because I send a lot of SMS messages to Android users.
The only thing I've noticed about it that actually annoys me is when I'm on the receiving end of an iMessage sent to a group that includes Android users you get every message as if it were a new text and often since I don't know these people it's annoying.
I have unlimited texts so it doesn't matter there either. I couldn't do away with texts because I send a lot of SMS messages to Android users.
The only thing I've noticed about it that actually annoys me is when I'm on the receiving end of an iMessage sent to a group that includes Android users you get every message as if it were a new text and often since I don't know these people it's annoying.
The satisfaction of an iMessage being delivered would be better if it actually was delivered whenever it said that!! A lot of the time it's hit and miss for me.
The last 2 messages I sent to my wife came through garbled. So, I would certainly like a more reliable SMS.
A LOT. almost everyone I text on a daily basis has an iPhone. So it's not only cheaper, but faster for me too I find, when I'm connected to wifi. As I don't pay for data, I wouldn't know if it's a good or bad thing on data though. I've had literally no issues with it, it always goes to my iPod so when I'm charging my phone..I can still text on it!
The fact the message is Brocken up into 160 character blocks and sent as separate texts then joined again the other end is interly invisible to me and the recipient so utterly irrelevant. I can write a non iMessage text as long as I want with no issues so no limitation.
I very very rarely send a text overseas, though obviously that could be a MASSIVE benefit to those who do, but that's not the question in this thread. I've never once noticed my network go down in the 2 years I've had this iPhone.
Wirelessly posted
When iMessage was "new" I thought it was great. But I've noticed that it often reverts back to SMS, even over wifi! Some of my close friends have relocated to different countries and iMessage fails often enough that I can't rely on it when messaging them. What can apple even do to spice up iMessage?
Flesh it out like bbm?
When iMessage was "new" I thought it was great. But I've noticed that it often reverts back to SMS, even over wifi! Some of my close friends have relocated to different countries and iMessage fails often enough that I can't rely on it when messaging them. What can apple even do to spice up iMessage?
Flesh it out like bbm?
Don't use it, its just too unreliable. If one phone is in a wifi zone but isn't logged into that wifi (ie the bars are showing but you haven't proceeded past the log in page), iMessage doesn't work - its shows as delivered but never is. It just gets lost.
My wife was ill in hospital once and didnt receive iMessages from me because of that very reason. If you can't rely on it, particularly in an emergency, its absolutely useless. We both switched it off and went back to SMS.
My wife was ill in hospital once and didnt receive iMessages from me because of that very reason. If you can't rely on it, particularly in an emergency, its absolutely useless. We both switched it off and went back to SMS.
Not important to me.
I get a gazillion amount of free text bundled in my package every month that I hardly use... and don't have many friends or family with iPhones, most are Android and BB users still...
I really had high hopes for iMesaage when it was annoiunced, thinking it would be the Apple version of BBM. Now I take advantage of Whatsapp more than I do iMessage. Since its multi platform.
Any social IM app that links all users of the major handset makers, i.e Apple, RIM and Google...then they're a winner in my eyes...and that title goes to WhatsApp. It has it's flaws, but I can overlook it as it at least covers the basics in communication.
I get a gazillion amount of free text bundled in my package every month that I hardly use... and don't have many friends or family with iPhones, most are Android and BB users still...
I really had high hopes for iMesaage when it was annoiunced, thinking it would be the Apple version of BBM. Now I take advantage of Whatsapp more than I do iMessage. Since its multi platform.
Any social IM app that links all users of the major handset makers, i.e Apple, RIM and Google...then they're a winner in my eyes...and that title goes to WhatsApp. It has it's flaws, but I can overlook it as it at least covers the basics in communication.
I remember making a thread about how turning off iMessage is a good idea since its reported to be unreliable and I was bashed since apparently people in that thread thought it was working flawlessly.
Now this thread has people agreeing with me that it's better to turn the damn thing off.
Now this thread has people agreeing with me that it's better to turn the damn thing off.
How Important is iMessage to You?
imesseges are important for me like oxygen is important for you people
imesseges are important for me like oxygen is important for you people
Not very important at the moment.
I've only used iMessage on a handful of occasions as most of my friends use blackberrys. I also own a blackberry, so find myself using bbm to communicate with most of them.
I personally prefer the whole user experience of bbm over iMessage, but can see how iMessage would be useful to many people. E.g international texting, sending media and those with limited text plans.
I'm sure Apple will work to improve iMessage in the future as its still a relatively new service. And I may find myself using it a lot more if and when my friends decide to upgrade to ios devices.
I've only used iMessage on a handful of occasions as most of my friends use blackberrys. I also own a blackberry, so find myself using bbm to communicate with most of them.
I personally prefer the whole user experience of bbm over iMessage, but can see how iMessage would be useful to many people. E.g international texting, sending media and those with limited text plans.
I'm sure Apple will work to improve iMessage in the future as its still a relatively new service. And I may find myself using it a lot more if and when my friends decide to upgrade to ios devices.
I remember making a thread about how turning off iMessage is a good idea since its reported to be unreliable and I was bashed since apparently people in that thread thought it was working flawlessly.
Now this thread has people agreeing with me that it's better to turn the damn thing off.
I wouldn't turn mine off, but I agree it's very hit or miss.
iMessage is getting more and more useful for me as more and more of my friends are getting iPhones. That & Kik for messaging people on Android means I'm using barely any texts And I, for one, won't miss SMS. It's the biggest rip off ever.
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Except it will use multiple texts up...
And I, for one, won't miss SMS. It's the biggest rip off ever.----------
Except it will use multiple texts up...
I can understand if it's useful for our friends across the pond or elsewhere in the world who have limited SMS quotas, but here in the US, it is utterly useless in terms of avoiding SMS charges, as you basically have to have unlimited anyways. It's nice to not have VeriPhone people's texts chopped up, but I wouldn't make a purchasing decision based on it. Maps? GMail? iTunes? Apps? yeah, those are differentiators, but in the US at least, iMessage ain't it. I like it, but it's not something I really care or think about. I just use it when it works.
Which means nothing when texts are unlimited.
You can group message with SMS.