Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

I love iMessage, but I can see it being an issue for me

Status
Not open for further replies.
acfusion29

acfusion29

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Nov 8, 2007
3,128
1
Toronto
first off, i think iMessage is one of the best features ever for the iPhone as i'm able to messages to my friends and family in the US without paying stupid $0.50 per text message to talk to him (i avoided that by using liveprofile or whatsapp, but a native app is always nice!)

however, here's my issue.

i had to turn off "send as SMS when iMessage is unavailable" because i don't want to be paying $0.50 for every time he's NOT available. it doesn't tell me whether i can send the message or not, it just sends it as a text AFTER the iMessage doesn't go through.

this leads to another issue with my friends here in Canada. iMessage is enabled but for whatever reason they don't have a wifi/data, then the message won't go through! what does that do? well it sits in the 'cloud' and gets delivered to them once they have any data signal.

all in all, we should have a few options here:

1. separate app for iMessage

2. ability to turn iMessage OFF for specific contacts because i have a few friends who use iPhone's without data.

3. real time availability for iMessage, when I open the contact window it automatically knows right away whether he's available to receive an iMessage. i shouldn't have to wait until i send the message because if i send an iMessage and have "send as text enabled" (and this message is outbound to the US), then i'll incur fees that i refuse to pay to these billion dollar companies.

4. hold the home button down and choose whether or not to send as a text or iMessage. have the phone remember the toggle set for that contact.

5. how bout an alert before my iPhone decides to send out a text message instead

#5 is the most reasonable solution to me though.




just be $0.02. no pun intended.
 
I agree. I haven't used iMessage yet, but it seems like a cool feature. The only things I did not like about it when I heard about it is that it only works with people on iOS, and you would still have to pay for text messages if they did not have iOS.

I refuse to pay for texts (and I have it disabled on my phone) so I just use Google Voice. It works well, but has it's pros and cons.

I think in a perfect world we would have a short messaging service protocol that was totally free, supported by every phone, and supported basic features like telling people when the message is received, when people are typing, and allowing group chat. It would be nice if it supported voip and video chat over Wi-Fi, and used your data/minutes on cell service. No more calling people with phone numbers, we would all use email addresses.

Google should own it and make it part of google+. They should also add a blog section to google+.

Soem day, some day...
 
switching the SMS on and off in iMessage is troublesome.

So this is what I do to confirm sending through sms or iMessage.

Whenever I want to send using iMessage, I use the other party email (apple id) address which they added in their iMessage.

If I want to send SMS I just use phone number. In this way I will be a confirm iMessage and SMS and don't get both mix up and pay unnecessarily roam SMS.
 
Intell said:
Tell Apple: http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html
Click to expand...

get a life. i already did before i posted this thread.

keigo said:
switching the SMS on and off in iMessage is troublesome.

So this is what I do to confirm sending through sms or iMessage.

Whenever I want to send using iMessage, I use the other party email (apple id) address which they added in their iMessage.

If I want to send SMS I just use phone number. In this way I will be a confirm iMessage and SMS and don't get both mix up and pay unnecessarily roam SMS.
Click to expand...

i tried that, email wasn't as reliable for some reason. it kept getting delayed.

but even if you try to send a message to a phone number, it detects it. and the worst part about it is it will REMEMBER that, and keep it on iMessage until you try to send an iMessage and it fails.

Apple has the right idea, but this needs refinements.
 
upaymeifixit said:
I agree. I haven't used iMessage yet, but it seems like a cool feature. The only things I did not like about it when I heard about it is that it only works with people on iOS, and you would still have to pay for text messages if they did not have iOS.

I refuse to pay for texts (and I have it disabled on my phone) so I just use Google Voice. It works well, but has it's pros and cons.

I think in a perfect world we would have a short messaging service protocol that was totally free, supported by every phone, and supported basic features like telling people when the message is received, when people are typing, and allowing group chat. It would be nice if it supported voip and video chat over Wi-Fi, and used your data/minutes on cell service. No more calling people with phone numbers, we would all use email addresses.

Google should own it and make it part of google+. They should also add a blog section to google+.

Soem day, some day...
Click to expand...

I would recommend twitter > as more and more of your friends join you can utilize the private message option, i.e. free text message, no charge. It's great.
 
What makes iMessage be "unavailable"?

And does this mean international texts are free when it's done through iMessage? .50 cents a text is absurd...
 
whawhat said:
I would recommend twitter > as more and more of your friends join you can utilize the private message option, i.e. free text message, no charge. It's great.
Click to expand...

I would if all of my friends use twitter. Almost all of them text, and I want the best method that makes it so they don't have to do anything special to talk to me, otherwise, they may not. I just tell everyone that my phone number is my Google Voice number, and it works pretty well. I actually use it like my real phone now. The only downside to Google Voice is that their iOS app is a little buggy.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

acfusion29 said:
2. ability to turn iMessage OFF for specific contacts because i have a few friends who use iPhone's without data.
Click to expand...

If your friends with iPhones and no data plans turn off imessaging on their end, won't that solve the problem?
 
Last edited:
acfusion29 said:
get a life. i already did before i posted this thread.
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong but the whole idea behind posting on forums threads is to get opinions, answers and feedback from others as well as helpful suggestions. You on the other hand feel compelled to insult someone who has tried to make a helpful suggestion by posting a rude and unnecessary response. Maybe everyone should just ignore your posts altogether and refrain from trying to help. :eek:
 
I think it would be sweet to set iMessage roles for specific contacts, but it would probably confuse the average user.

I was very surprised iOS 5 allows custom vibrations for each individual contact. Apple tends to keep things simple, which is why we generally see a lack of customizable features.

I'm pretty happy with iMessage, but it's kind of lost on me since I have unlimited text messaging. I will probably drop that down soon though since I've been texting far less than I used to.
 
whawhat said:
I would recommend twitter > as more and more of your friends join you can utilize the private message option, i.e. free text message, no charge. It's great.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this: I didn't realize that twitter had this option (not a big twitter user...yet)
 
acfusion29 said:
get a life. i already did before i posted this thread.
Click to expand...

Well said. It really annoys me when people post that feedback link, as if Apple gives a **** what you send them. They do what they want, when they want, what they think is best, and you either live with it or use another product.
 
Mr.C said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but the whole idea behind posting on forums threads is to get opinions, answers and feedback from others as well as helpful suggestions. You on the other hand feel compelled to insult someone who has tried to make a helpful suggestion by posting a rude and unnecessary response. Maybe everyone should just ignore your posts altogether and refrain from trying to help. :eek:
Click to expand...



i'm asking for feedback from MacRumors not from Apple, this is why i posted it here. if i wanted to know how to submit it to Apple, i would've asked.

i could give two ***** about his Apple feedback page. i actually submitted this internally through the developer portal because from my experience they actually get back to you.


Badandy said:
He was offering a suggestion. What the hell is wrong with you?
Click to expand...

iWannaBeAdored said:
This. What the hell man?
Click to expand...

AlvinNguyen said:
*******.
Click to expand...

Pipper99 said:
very rude
Click to expand...

no i'm not rude.
no i'm not an *******.

i'm just being real with him. instead of posting something to contribute to my thread, all he does is post a link to the Apple page? like i said, i don't care about their feedback page.

this forum has become a joke since i signed up 4 years ago.. just a bunch of virgins on here who've never even talked to a woman before, post crap that i have to filter through.

i try to browse the wallpapers and i see a bunch of new pages.. cool.

bunch of new pages full of wallpapers? nope. 1 picture of a girl then:

:D OMG SHE'S HOT
:D OMG WHAT'S HER NAME
:D OMG
:D OMG

on top of that, you go and open a thread where someone voices their opinion, gets negged -50 and the thread gets derailed because a few people don't agree with that.


Dangerdog3000 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

If your friends with iPhones and no data plans turn off imessaging on their end, won't that solve the problem?
Click to expand...

that could work, but they might want to iMessage when they're connected to Wifi.

the problem is, the phone remembers that the last message i sent was an iMessage, so the next message i send will be iMessage.

this isn't the case when sending texts though. if you try to send a text, it will convert it to iMessage if available.

aurichie said:
Well said. It really annoys me when people post that feedback link, as if Apple gives a **** what you send them. They do what they want, when they want, what they think is best, and you either live with it or use another product.
Click to expand...

ya.. we've wanted things for a while and it hasn't happened.

- flash
- custom msgs finally arrived
- customer background came in iOS4

and i could go on.. and on.. and on..
 
E3BK said:
At this point, why wouldn't you just continue to use What'sApp if you want a separate app?

iMessage is new. I'm sure improvements will come.
Click to expand...

because iMessage is integrated into the OS

not every wants to download third party applications to communicate with people. in fact, i'd say about 99% of my friends and family are turned off by that idea.

also, i still have whatsapp installed to communicate with some people who don't have an iPhone.
 
some good ideas here, but I don't like that first one. The beauty of iMessage is that its NOT a different app, that its a seamless transition from text to iMessage. Making a separate app would take that away

----------
Advil said:
What makes iMessage be "unavailable"?

And does this mean international texts are free when it's done through iMessage? .50 cents a text is absurd...
Click to expand...

if on WiFi, yes. If you're going over 3G, then it'll be billed at whatever that amount of data is for international roaming data (assuming you don't have an international plan or swapped SIMs), which I would imagine comes out as less than 50 cents. Just hope your friend doesn't reply with a GIF!
 
Wow. You are ****in rude. Getting opinions from the community is fine but none of us work for Apple therefore we cannot fix this for you. Submitting feedback to Apple is one way of getting them looked at. Just because your personal concerns weren't addressed instantly doesn't mean they don't care. I'm sure millions of people send them suggestions all the time - you're not the only one who owns Apple products.

As for the solution to your dumb problem, how about clicking on that Phone icon and call your stupid friends? Your phone is a phone first after all. Quit whining about how you can't afford to text like a little bitch and get a job or something. People have been able to send remote messages to each other for the last 5,000 years. You live in amazing times and yet can't figure out how to place a simple call? Get a brain.
 
aurichie said:
Well said. It really annoys me when people post that feedback link, as if Apple gives a **** what you send them. They do what they want, when they want, what they think is best, and you either live with it or use another product.
Click to expand...

that link is really (i think) more for reporting glitches and bugs you find, so they can gauge how widespread certain issues are and decide which ones to focus on fixing first
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back