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iMessage "Delivered" theory

S

sstevens

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 14, 2012
62
0
California
I have come to realize that when a message is sent via iMessage to another iPhone and the 'Delivered' note appears basically instantaneously after it is sent, the other person has their phone open or unlocked. Can someone verify this?

I understand it takes time sometimes for the 'Delivered' note to appear, and when the recipient is on the phone it turns to a Text Message (green) but was wondering if anyone else has noticed that regardless of geographical distance if the 'Delivered' speed has anything to do with when the recipients' phone is open or perhaps has iMessage in use at the exact moment..
 
Not necessarily. It always gets delivered within 1 second, phone locked or not.

LTE latency is pretty good these days (and honestly 3G ping isn't that bad either) so it's not such a big difference between WiFi and cellular anymore when it comes to things like this.
 
Delivered means it's reached apples network and has been sent to their device.

It doesn't mean it's actually reached the device as it could be off, out of coverage etc.

It's like email. You send it, it goes to their mailbox and is then waiting for them to pick it up.

The only true confirmation that it has reached the end device is of they have read receipts on.
 
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Mercenary said:
Delivered means it's reached apples network and has been sent to their device.

It doesn't mean it's actually reached the device as it could be off, out of coverage etc.

It's like email. You send it, it goes to their mailbox and is then waiting for them to pick it up.

The only true confirmation that it has reached the end device is of they have read receipts on.
Click to expand...

Not true. Delivered in iMessage does mean it reached the recipient's device.
 
Indeed. Delivered actually means *push notification shown on their phone* at the very least. Messages sent to somebody with airplane mode on won't be "delivered" until they go back online, for example.
 
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One thing that's annoying is that delivered just means delivered to one of your devices with iMessage. I have both an iPad and iPhone. I had an occasion where I was somewhere with my phone and no signal. A friend was sending me messages and was upset I wasn't returning messages since they were seeing them as delivered. Unfortunately they were getting delivered to my iPad at home and not to my phone that was with me.
 
BruiserB said:
One thing that's annoying is that delivered just means delivered to one of your devices with iMessage. I have both an iPad and iPhone. I had an occasion where I was somewhere with my phone and no signal. A friend was sending me messages and was upset I wasn't returning messages since they were seeing them as delivered. Unfortunately they were getting delivered to my iPad at home and not to my phone that was with me.
Click to expand...

You might want to turn on Send Read Receipts and advise your friend that he or she should be looking for a "Read" status to be sure that you're paying ball.
 
Mercenary said:
Delivered means it's reached apples network and has been sent to their device.

It doesn't mean it's actually reached the device as it could be off, out of coverage etc.

It's like email. You send it, it goes to their mailbox and is then waiting for them to pick it up.

The only true confirmation that it has reached the end device is of they have read receipts on.
Click to expand...

again wrong info, u don't get delivered if recipient device is turned off
 
That would make sense, as the iPhone disables wifi when the phone is locked. So if a person has bad network signal, they would be more likely to receive a message when the phone is unlocked and connected to wifi :)
 
Circling back to the original question:

sstevens said:
I have come to realize that when a message is sent via iMessage to another iPhone and the 'Delivered' note appears basically instantaneously after it is sent, the other person has their phone open or unlocked. Can someone verify this?
Click to expand...

All it means is that the recipient has at least one of their devices actively connected to the internet and able to receive push messages. It could be their phone, or an iPad if they have one, or a Mac if they have one.

So, the phone could be in the process of fetching mail when it gets your message, which means it will get there really quickly. But that doesn't mean it's unlocked and the user is actively looking at their phone. Or, it could just mean they left their iPad or Mac on with the Messages app open on their desk somewhere, while their iPhone could be off.


I understand it takes time sometimes for the 'Delivered' note to appear, and when the recipient is on the phone it turns to a Text Message (green)
Click to expand...

Only if they're on a CDMA network or a 2G EDGE network, with no Wifi.
 
kiantech said:
Not true. Delivered in iMessage does mean it reached the recipient's device.
Click to expand...

SA Spyder said:
Indeed. Delivered actually means *push notification shown on their phone* at the very least. Messages sent to somebody with airplane mode on won't be "delivered" until they go back online, for example.
Click to expand...

In theory yes, but I have sent people picture iMessages in the same room (to share pics with others), and it says "Delivered" on my iPhone and literally waited 10+ minutes for their iPhones to get the iMessage. Mind you, we were all on the same WiFi network and same cell carrier.

After that, I tried sending a text iMessage, and it says delivered but there is maybe anywhere from a 3-15 second lag. Not saying that is a long time but iMessage's "Delivered" status is premature & doesn't 100% necessarily mean it was delivered.
 
LV426 said:
You might want to turn on Send Read Receipts and advise your friend that he or she should be looking for a "Read" status to be sure that you're paying ball.
Click to expand...

Personally, I'd remind the friend that as important as he or she is to me, I'm not a slave to my phone and don't always reach for it the moment a new text comes in. :cool:
 
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deeddawg said:
Personally, I'd remind the friend that as important as he or she is to me, I'm not a slave to my phone and don't always reach for it the moment a new text comes in. :cool:
Click to expand...

Exactly. That's why the "Read" status is important. It shows to the sender that you've actually read their message (or at least opened it). Whether you do that right away or a day later is entirely up to you.
 
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LV426 said:
That's why the "Read" status is important. It shows to the sender that you've actually read their message (or at least opened it).
Click to expand...

FWIW, I never allow read-receipts on anything... :D

I-saw-YOu.jpg
 
this just happened to me:

I tried to text my friend for 6 times.. But no "Delivered" showed up in either of my texts...

And I realized later that my friend's phone die from running out of battery..

So, if no "delivered" show you, it MIGHT be that the person you texted to didn't get that text.
 
FSMBP said:
In theory yes, but I have sent people picture iMessages in the same room (to share pics with others), and it says "Delivered" on my iPhone and literally waited 10+ minutes for their iPhones to get the iMessage. Mind you, we were all on the same WiFi network and same cell carrier.
Click to expand...

Do these people have other iDevices, like Macs with the Messages app, or iPads or iPod touches?
 
BruiserB said:
One thing that's annoying is that delivered just means delivered to one of your devices with iMessage. I have both an iPad and iPhone. I had an occasion where I was somewhere with my phone and no signal. A friend was sending me messages and was upset I wasn't returning messages since they were seeing them as delivered. Unfortunately they were getting delivered to my iPad at home and not to my phone that was with me.
Click to expand...

I absolutely hate when people expect immediate replies to emails, texts or phone calls. The phone is not an interrupt button to my life.
 
I understand what everyone is saying but let me just re-iterate with a scenario..

Scenario:
Let's say I'm at home, in the car, whatever (connected to WiFi or not) and my friend is at work or at his house and is connected to his WiFi (or not).

I send him a text through iMessage and I notice the moment I hit "Send" it shows the note 'Delivered' almost immediately. My theory is that when it shows it that quickly then it means my friend (the recipient) has his phone open and is on it (literally holding it whether he is on Chrome, Messages, Mail, Instagram, Twitter, etc... - it is simply not locked). This also shouldn't matter whether we are in the same room or hundreds of miles apart...right?

I'm thinking that if I sent a text (iMessage) and I hit "Send" and I can start counting until I see the 'Delivered' note that their phone is locked but and the message is in transit to the recipient's phone until 'Delivered' shows up then I know for a fact that it is on their phone.

Can someone just try this? Two people, same room, recipient phone locked and then once unlocked and see that lag when the 'Delivered' note comes up. Then try the same process miles apart or someone at the market and someone at home.

I think this is just another more technical way for 'Read Receipts' seeing as if 'Delivered' shows up INSTANTANEOUSLY that they got the notification or have the 'Messages (1)' note on iMessage (if open) but are simply ignoring if it takes them minutes to respond...

Does that make sense?

**I know that an SMS or MMS will show up as GREEN when either of us are out of service, one of us is on the phone, etc.
 
sstevens said:
I understand what everyone is saying but let me just re-iterate with a scenario..

Scenario:
Let's say I'm at home, in the car, whatever (connected to WiFi or not) and my friend is at work or at his house and is connected to his WiFi (or not).

I send him a text through iMessage and I notice the moment I hit "Send" it shows the note 'Delivered' almost immediately. My theory is that when it shows it that quickly then it means my friend (the recipient) has his phone open and is on it (literally holding it whether he is on Chrome, Messages, Mail, Instagram, Twitter, etc... - it is simply not locked). This also shouldn't matter whether we are in the same room or hundreds of miles apart...right?

I'm thinking that if I sent a text (iMessage) and I hit "Send" and I can start counting until I see the 'Delivered' note that their phone is locked but and the message is in transit to the recipient's phone until 'Delivered' shows up then I know for a fact that it is on their phone.

Can someone just try this? Two people, same room, recipient phone locked and then once unlocked and see that lag when the 'Delivered' note comes up. Then try the same process miles apart or someone at the market and someone at home.

I think this is just another more technical way for 'Read Receipts' seeing as if 'Delivered' shows up INSTANTANEOUSLY that they got the notification or have the 'Messages (1)' note on iMessage (if open) but are simply ignoring if it takes them minutes to respond...

Does that make sense?

**I know that an SMS or MMS will show up as GREEN when either of us are out of service, one of us is on the phone, etc.
Click to expand...

The phone being unlocked has no relevance. The "Delivered" will appear as soon as the message arrives at the persons device. Could be seconds, could be hours depending on whether the phone is able to receive data.
 
scaredpoet said:
Circling back to the original question:
Click to expand...

So i have sent some imessages to someone over the last few weeks who has blocked me... i mean i call and its blocked yet my imessage will read as delivered usually anywhere from 4 days up to a week later...
what does this mean? Does it mean he has a ipad and still gets the messages to ipad even though im blocked sending to his phone?

Like he blocked me yet my iMessages say "delivered" days later?
 
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