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When iMessage came out in iOS 5, I remember thinking that it wasn't that big of a deal, especially if you had unlimited text messaging. Now I understand how smart Apple is by coming up with iMessage.

My wife dropped her iPhone in water and to save money, we got her an Android phone - all she wants to do is to send pictures and videos amongst her family members. I realize now that since she doesn't have iMessage, any video she gets from family members is going to look awful and blurry. The way that iMessage is seamlessly integrated with the regular texting app is such a huge deal. It's pretty much impossible to convince a group of people (including 50+ year olds) to use a separate service to text message (because they don't understand MMS limits). To my wife (and the ordinary user) it is unfathomable that you can't send decent video through texting, probably because "it just worked" with her iPhone. For me, I know that if I need to send a video to someone, I'll use email or a specific app that I know the person will have, etc. But when you get people used to the that the regular messaging app will do it all, it's hard to convince them to have anything else.

Very smart, Apple.

If only apple did come up with iMessage. BBM was out well before iMessage.
 
When iMessage came out in iOS 5, I remember thinking that it wasn't that big of a deal, especially if you had unlimited text messaging. Now I understand how smart Apple is by coming up with iMessage.

My wife dropped her iPhone in water and to save money, we got her an Android phone - all she wants to do is to send pictures and videos amongst her family members. I realize now that since she doesn't have iMessage, any video she gets from family members is going to look awful and blurry. The way that iMessage is seamlessly integrated with the regular texting app is such a huge deal. It's pretty much impossible to convince a group of people (including 50+ year olds) to use a separate service to text message (because they don't understand MMS limits). To my wife (and the ordinary user) it is unfathomable that you can't send decent video through texting, probably because "it just worked" with her iPhone. For me, I know that if I need to send a video to someone, I'll use email or a specific app that I know the person will have, etc. But when you get people used to the that the regular messaging app will do it all, it's hard to convince them to have anything else.

Very smart, Apple.

iMessage is one of my favorite parts about my iPhone. I knew it would be when iOS 5 was announced.
 
IMHO what's app is so popular because people including many iphone users do not knapp how good iMessage is

Horrendous. iMessage is great for iOS to iOS users. Whatsapp is far more useful in the real world. I know tons of people who use androids and blackberrys and its nice to be able to use a data app to message people. It even shares locations and the group messaging doesn't flake out as often as iMessage does. iMessage is great but has a long way to go.
 
If only apple did come up with iMessage. BBM was out well before iMessage.

I never had a Blackberry, but I was always under the impression that BBM was a separate app from texting and that people couldn't BBM using phone numbers.

My brother recently switched from a Blackberry to an iPhone and I figured it out when he texted me and the message was blue.
 
I never had a Blackberry, but I was always under the impression that BBM was a separate app from texting and that people couldn't BBM using phone numbers.

My brother recently switched from a Blackberry to an iPhone and I figured it out when he texted me and the message was blue.

I suppose it's a separate app, but it's the exact same concept.
 
I contend that unifying SMS and IM ino a single seamless app is the killer concept behind iMessage.

While I agree that unifying iMessage with SMS app is an important improvement over BBM, but the concept of sending messages only to users of the same OS using data, instead of SMS services, and accompanying these messages with sent/read tags is nothing new.
 
iMessage is great because it lets me send natively to iPhones in other countries like my friends in canada,England,and Israel for free
 
I love iMessage too. The reason why we keep regular texting though is because sometimes iMessage goes out.
 
I really like iMessage too. At first I didn't think much of it, or care about it. But I don't think I would switch platforms just because of iMessage.
 
Horrendous. iMessage is great for iOS to iOS users. Whatsapp is far more useful in the real world. I know tons of people who use androids and blackberrys and its nice to be able to use a data app to message people. It even shares locations and the group messaging doesn't flake out as often as iMessage does. iMessage is great but has a long way to go.

lol what? iMessage barely flakes out on me, are you fully updated to iOS 6?
 
I loved BBM & Blackberry but switched to iPhone & IM when all my family switched, so for me IM is a big deal ! I love my iPhone now and would never go back . I do use Whatsapp for cross platform texting and Kik , but less now .
 
I understand the cross platform use of What'sapp. It is very useful that way.

I had just a few people that would use it, so I had very little need for it.
The biggest draw back I found was the UI seemed extremely cluttered.
 
I tend to use Facebook Messenger for cross-platform group chat and SMS for individual conversations with non-iPhone friends.
 
I love imessage, so much faster than texting and no worry about charges for photos.
 
I contend that unifying SMS and IM ino a single seamless app is the killer concept behind iMessage.

This was the point of my post. iMessage is combining the old technology (SMS) with the new so that people don't have to straddle the two by SMSing some people and IMing others. Although I'm not well versed with BBM, I think it lacks this killer feature. Hopefully, there will be some breakthrough standardization that gets us off SMS and into all data, cross platform messaging.
 
One of the key advantages of iMessage over whatsapp is that iMessage works on iPhones, iPads, iPod touches, and macs. This allows folks who don't have phones such as young children to message you. Also whatsapp gets confused when you travel overseas and buy local SIM cards since its seeing a different number. I configure iMessage to use my apple ID which is a gmail address so it works across devices and SIM cards.
 
I don't trust whats app because to use it correctly you need to share all your contacts. I am sure that sooner or later they will use that information in a wrong way or a hacker is going to access millions of contact details from all the whats app users.

Also it is easier to send photos and videos with iMessage, almost all the time the quality from imessage is great.

Also I love to send messages using my mac computer, it is great to send imessages thru a keyboard to all your imessage contacts.

It would be great that people that use windows could also download iMessage.
 
I never had a Blackberry, but I was always under the impression that BBM was a separate app from texting and that people couldn't BBM using phone numbers.

My brother recently switched from a Blackberry to an iPhone and I figured it out when he texted me and the message was blue.

You are right

And this distinction and benefit is lost only people who are used to checking three four apps to see who sent what

Check SMS in one place check what's app in another check BBM one place and so on

The majority not so tech user would like to however check on app *that is anyhow on all the time *

Different folks different strokes but IMHO apple not advertising iMessage or making it a string selling point is a loss to the user and platform

Probably they do not want to go against the carriers who anyhow make a lot of money ones staging

Regards

Subu

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I don't trust whats app because to use it correctly you need to share all your contacts. I am sure that sooner or later they will use that information in a wrong way or a hacker is going to access millions of contact details from all the whats app users.

Also it is easier to send photos and videos with iMessage, almost all the time the quality from imessage is great.

Also I love to send messages using my mac computer, it is great to send imessages thru a keyboard to all your imessage contacts.

It would be great that people that use windows could also download iMessage.

iMessage on windows or other phones thru another app !!! A great biz idea waiting there !!
 
iMessage is great when it works but it still needs a lot of improving. It works well on the phone but on the Mac it is far from perfect. A lot of the time it lags for me, fails to update the conversation. Messages need to be sent twice when sending after a long break.

Does anyone else have these problems? For me these occur every single time without failure.
 
Also whatsapp gets confused when you travel overseas and buy local SIM cards since its seeing a different number.

No it doesn't.

It asks you if you'd like WhatsApp to use the new SIM card phone number, or continue using your old SIM card number. Which is actually really useful, because if you go abroad for a month, you can keep in touch with your WhatsApp contacts without any new numbers interfering.
 
iMessage is great when it works because it has a tendency of being slow and unreliable. I personally prefer Facebook Messenger because it works across multiple platforms and people who matter are already on it anyway. Plus it has a web based interface which I wish whatsapp and iMessage would implement.
 
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