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iPhone iOS 7 Permanent SMS Timestamps?

d4m1r

d4m1r

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 1, 2011
199
0
Bosnia
Hey guys, I was recently forced to update from 5.1.1 to 7.1.2 and now I am having a problem....I want each of my text messages to be timestamped at time of arrival like it was under 5.1.1.

This feature seems impossible to do under iOS 7? I know I can swipe the screen to the left to see the timestamps but as soon as I let go, they disappear again...Is there any way to permanently enable them to be disabled by default, always?
 
Update: I haven't been able to find any "official" app from the App Store to enable this NOR is it possible to enable this via Settings.

Is there some kind of jailbreak package I can install to restore this functionality we had under iOS 5 but for some weird reason was removed completely from iOS 7?
 
Nobody?

Can I mod please move this thread to the jailbreaking section? I fear that is why I haven't been recieving any tips because their MUST be a jailbroken package for this...
 
One particularly welcome addition to iOS 7 is the ability to view timestamps for individual text messages. To do so, simply swipe to the left while in a conversation view and timestamps appear on the right-hand side of the screen, now can see at which time each individual message was sent.
 
^lol?

d4m1r said:
I know I can swipe the screen to the left to see the timestamps but as soon as I let go, they disappear again...Is there any way to permanently enable them to be disabled by default, always?
Click to expand...
 
Can I mod please move this topic to the Jailbreak section then so I don't have to recreate a duplicate thread there? :confused:
 
d4m1r said:
Hey guys, I was recently forced to update from 5.1.1 to 7.1.2 and now I am having a problem....I want each of my text messages to be timestamped at time of arrival like it was under 5.1.1.

This feature seems impossible to do under iOS 7? I know I can swipe the screen to the left to see the timestamps but as soon as I let go, they disappear again...Is there any way to permanently enable them to be disabled by default, always?
Click to expand...

What did you use in iOS 5 to see timestamps of each message? Stock (non-jailbroken) iOS never really offered that until iOS 7 when the ability to swipe to the left to see timestamps was introduced.
 
Stock messaging app in iOS 5 was so much better than this one in iOS 7...

Date and time was shown for all text messages at all times...You didn't have to swipe left or any of pointless gesture to see the information...

Now, not even the date (ex: September 17th, 2014) is shown at the top of message to indicate what day it was (now just says Tuesday, 5:03 PM).

Useless.
 
d4m1r said:
Stock messaging app in iOS 5 was so much better than this one in iOS 7...

Date and time was shown for all text messages at all times...You didn't have to swipe left or any of pointless gesture to see the information...

Now, not even the date (ex: September 17th, 2014) is shown at the top of message to indicate what day it was (now just says Tuesday, 5:03 PM).

Useless.
Click to expand...
I don't recall any of that for every message in stock iOS 5. As I mentioned the Messages app worked the same way in iOS 5 as far as timestamps go as in other iOS versions until iOS 7 when timestamps for all messages became available (by swiping to the left).

Here are some articles and similar threads that discuss this basicaly saying timestamps for every message are a new thing as of iOS 7:

http://www.imore.com/how-view-timestamps-individual-texts-and-imessages-ios-7

http://discussions.apple.com/thread/5459824

http://discussions.apple.com/thread/2770635
 
d4m1r said:
To prove my point, here is an image of how it was under iOS 5 when messages were properly divided by FULL date and time. Apple has done some pretty stupid things over the years, but remove such important information and hide (only some of it, time only not date) via a gesture? :confused:

http://cdn1.tnwcdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2011/10/IMG_0454.png
Click to expand...
I have the same thing in iOS 8 and had it in iOS 7 and before. As you can see in some of the links I posted, some messages will get timestamps that get displayed right in the conversations. Those timestamps generally are in something like 15 minute intervals (although often even more than that), meaning that you'll get or send a message which will get a timestamp like that and any messages received or sent within 15 minutes of that one won't display a timestamp. It was like that in iOS 5 and still is in iOS 8. However, what iOS 7 added (and what's there in iOS 8 as well) is that by swiping to the left you can see the timestamp of every message, including those that normally were just grouped under a general 15-minute period timestamp.

Basically nothing was lost, and in fact per-message timestamps became available (while they weren't before).

For example, here's a screenshot of messages that's fairly similar to one that you attached from iOS 7 (which looks pretty much the same in iOS 8) that shows the same kind of information, and actually even more with the ability to see timestamps of every single message on the side (when swiped):

http://www.everythingicafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/timestamp-messages-ios7.jpg

That said, if you really want to see them all actually on the screen automtaically (which would still be different from stock iOS 5), you'd need to use a jailbreak tweak that would support something like that, perhaps one like SMSEnhancer (if it's still available) as mentioned at http://www.idownloadblog.com/2011/06/26/smsenhancer/
 
I get what you're saying, but your sample picture linked above isn't fully accurate. I'll give you another example. I have a text on my phone currently from last Wednesday let's say. It will NOT proceed that text by "Febuary 4th, 8:32 PM" for example like it did under iOS 5, but now under iOS 7 it just displays, "Wedsnesday 8:32 PM".
 
d4m1r said:
I get what you're saying, but your sample picture linked above isn't fully accurate. I'll give you another example. I have a text on my phone currently from last Wednesday let's say. It will NOT proceed that text by "Febuary 4th, 8:32 PM" for example like it did under iOS 5, but now under iOS 7 it just displays, "Wedsnesday 8:32 PM".
Click to expand...
I can't say for sure if that was the case in iOS 5 at the moment (although as far as I can recall it was) but anything within a week of the current day will appear as "Today", "Yesterday", or an appropriate day of the week like "Wednesday". Anything beyond one week back actually gets a date. It's like that in the Mail app as well as I recall.

So, for example, are things sent today in iOS 5 come up with "February 9, 8:32 PM" or as "Today 8:32 PM"?
 
Good question but I couldn't tell you anymore because it's been too long for me to remember now :) About 3 weeks now since I was forced to update by Apple....

As shown by my frustration in this thread however, obviously my brain still hasn't been able to adapt to this new format after 3-4 years of the previous one...And it shouldn't, because I still find the old system was better (full dates, time, etc all upfront) and I'll take functionality over asthetics (hiding some info behind a gesture) any day :(
 
d4m1r said:
Good question but I couldn't tell you anymore because it's been too long for me to remember now :) About 3 weeks now since I was forced to update by Apple....

As shown by my frustration in this thread however, obviously my brain still hasn't been able to adapt to this new format after 3-4 years of the previous one...And it shouldn't, because I still find the old system was better (full dates, time, etc all upfront) and I'll take functionality over asthetics (hiding some info behind a gesture) any day :(
Click to expand...
Well, at most it sounds like the issue is really just for the messages within the last week not getting labeled with dates and just days of the week (or "today" or "yesterday"). Aside from that the dates are there for messages over a week old and how often they appear should be the same as in iOS 5 as not every message got a timestamp prior to iOS 7. On the other hand, since iOS 7 it's now possible to see an actual timestamp of every message, which is certainly more than was there prior to it.
 
d4m1r said:
To prove my point, here is an image of how it was under iOS 5 when messages were properly divided by FULL date and time. Apple has done some pretty stupid things over the years, but remove such important information and hide (only some of it, time only not date) via a gesture? :confused:

http://cdn1.tnwcdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2011/10/IMG_0454.png
Click to expand...

the date only shows up when the message was sent on a different date than the previous one and that hasn't changed in 7
 
There seemed to be a 'magic' number of minutes, and if a message was received within that time, it was lumped as coming in at the same time. It was only after that time that the message got a 'new' time.

At least that is how I remember it.

It was mildly annoying when dealing with 'Sheldons' that want PROOF that you received their 'privileged communication' at the appropriate time, and didn't respond within their time limit. I don't have many of them, thank Ford...
 
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