One of my first ever flip phones had a wonderful function where you could choose a checkbox next to received messages to make them appear read or unread. This was very convenient for messages which you read, but don't have time to reply to immediately, and want to remember to come back to later.
In contrast, the latest, greatest iPhone not only does not have this rudimentary message management function, but it goes one step further in the wrong direction. If there is just one received, unread message, and you click on the messages icon, the new message will automatically be opened. It is opened irrespective of whether you have time to read it right away, irrespective of if you simply wanted to compose a new message or go back to another already read message. It just opens the new one, and then you are in a position where you have to read it and respond to it right there, or risk forgetting about it and failing to reply to it altogether. I sometimes receive a lot of messages over a period of a few hours, so it is very easy to lose track of these half-read messages in the mayhem. I have missed countless messages because of this problem. Incidentally, if there is more than one received message, then the application doesn't automatically open any of them, which is much better, because you can at least choose when you want to open one of the unread messages. But ideally, you should be able to go through your list of received messages and check or uncheck them as read or unread at any time, so that you can easily find messages that still need to be replied to, or reconsidered.
Does anybody have a solution to this problem? It strikes me as a simple data management solution that should be, but is not an option in the basic functionality of the app. Frustrating!
In contrast, the latest, greatest iPhone not only does not have this rudimentary message management function, but it goes one step further in the wrong direction. If there is just one received, unread message, and you click on the messages icon, the new message will automatically be opened. It is opened irrespective of whether you have time to read it right away, irrespective of if you simply wanted to compose a new message or go back to another already read message. It just opens the new one, and then you are in a position where you have to read it and respond to it right there, or risk forgetting about it and failing to reply to it altogether. I sometimes receive a lot of messages over a period of a few hours, so it is very easy to lose track of these half-read messages in the mayhem. I have missed countless messages because of this problem. Incidentally, if there is more than one received message, then the application doesn't automatically open any of them, which is much better, because you can at least choose when you want to open one of the unread messages. But ideally, you should be able to go through your list of received messages and check or uncheck them as read or unread at any time, so that you can easily find messages that still need to be replied to, or reconsidered.
Does anybody have a solution to this problem? It strikes me as a simple data management solution that should be, but is not an option in the basic functionality of the app. Frustrating!
