Walkthrough of Apple's iMessages in iOS 5

[-LikesMac-]

You know what I wish?

I just wish Texting became 100% free. It probably cost carriers literally .0000000001 cent to sent a text =_=

 

[cwwilson]

I know it may seem silly but I kinda wish Apple would have called it "iM" or "iMSG" instead of "iMessage". Seems a little too long to me. But it should work pretty well with all the people that have iDevices.

 

[advan031]

I'm really excited about this! I'll be able to reduce my text plan to the $10/1000 plan or completely get rid of it. The bulk of my texts goes to iPhone users.

 

[mms13]

BBM has been around for years and is fantastic. This is a great addition to iOS and hopefully more reliable than the third party applications that do the same thing. I don't however like the fact that anyone can send me an iMessage. I prefer RIM's design, where you have to accept a friend on BBM before they can message you. There are few people that I want sending me messages that show I have read them. Work colleagues for example, should not know whether I have checked a message until I chose to reply at a convenient time.

There is an option in Settings to turn sending read reciepts off

 

[cubbie5150]

Cool. More functionality for iOS users. I don't get how this is so polarizing. It's simply an alternative means of communicating. Personally, very few of my friends/acquaintances use iOS devices, so it won't be of much use to me.

 

[ten-oak-druid]

Limited capacity explains perfectly higher price. Basic laws of economics.

LOL

It costs a fraction of a cent to deliver a text message. You are spinning things in support of the mobile companies. It is funny that the mobile carriers have tried to say exactly the opposite: that the amount of texting is down and they are trying to make what profit they can. I already pointed out why that argument is poor. Now you are saying the opposite.

Are you in fact employed by the mobile carriers to spin this? They are fighting a legal battle. i wouldn't be surprised if they hired PR firms.

This is not "basic economics". It is basic "price fixing". Basic economics includes customers arguing for the best value. The US consumer is not doing that in this case.

 

[nburwell]

I am really looking forward to ditching my $20/month unlimited text plan with AT&T when iMessages is released with iOS 5 this fall. I'm really looking forward to this and the notification center the most.

 

[lars666]

Two quick questions to the beta testers out there:

1. Does iMessage on the iPod Touch/iPad allow to choose ANY email address you want as "contact/delivery address" (like Facetime) or are you stuck to the one email address which is your Apple ID? Judging by what "NightFox" wrote a few comments above, it seems that this is no problem, but just to be sure ...

2. Once you've signed in/verified for "iMessage" with your Apple ID, can you change to another account e.g. on the App/Music Store on your iPod Touch/iPad without being "logged out" for iMessages? I guess these two things don't get in each others way, do they? (no problem with Facetime, too)

Thanks a lot in advance for your info!

 

[diamond.g]

Two quick questions to the beta testers out there:

1. Does iMessage on the iPod Touch/iPad allow to choose ANY email address you want as "contact/delivery address" (like Facetime) or are you stuck to the one email address which is your Apple ID? Judging by what "NightFox" wrote a few comments above, it seems that this is no problem, but just to be sure ...

2. Once you've signed in/verified for "iMessage" with your Apple ID, can you change to another account e.g. on the App/Music Store on your iPod Touch/iPad without being "logged out" for iMessages? I guess these two things don't get in each others way, do they? (no problem with Facetime, too)

Thanks a lot in advance for your info!

From what I have read and have been told, iMessage uses the same settings that FaceTime uses. So whatever emails you have listed there would be enabled for iMessage use as well.

 

[lars666]

Quote:
Originally Posted by lars666
Two quick questions to the beta testers out there:

1. Does iMessage on the iPod Touch/iPad allow to choose ANY email address you want as "contact/delivery address" (like Facetime) or are you stuck to the one email address which is your Apple ID? Judging by what "NightFox" wrote a few comments above, it seems that this is no problem, but just to be sure ...

2. Once you've signed in/verified for "iMessage" with your Apple ID, can you change to another account e.g. on the App/Music Store on your iPod Touch/iPad without being "logged out" for iMessages? I guess these two things don't get in each others way, do they? (no problem with Facetime, too)

Thanks a lot in advance for your info!

diamond.g: From what I have read and have been told, iMessage uses the same settings that FaceTime uses. So whatever emails you have listed there would be enabled for iMessage use as well.

That's awesome, thanks for the info!

 

[ritmomundo]

I have an ipod touch, and i use a free texting app so i can text phones. its not a great experience

Can i text non-ios devices with imessage?

I would assume iOS5 on the iPT will have a standalone iMessages app for sending msgs to other iOS devices.

 

[dmmcintyre3]

Cell phone carriers charging for text messages if you have a data plan is like your home ISP charging for emails sent and received with their mail server.

 

[wordoflife]

Here is what I mean: We are double paying because we are already paying for a data plan and text messaging is data. Now I've had people I assume to be activists for phone companies tell me that the text message goes through the bandwidth that phone calls do rather than the band width of the data. My response to that is that we are already paying for a phone plan too. So either way, we are paying for it already and they want to tack on a plan on top of it.

The text message is either straight data just like an email message or the downloading of a web page or it should count as a minute phone call Either way you have already paid for it. Charging for the text like it is some "third box" is a rip off.

I am coming from the perspective of someone paying for moderate data (more than I'd like but there aren't many options) and minimum minutes. I have tons of minutes left and 3/4 of my data goes unused. And the phone company wants me to pay more for texting? If you are buying the largest data plans and the text messaging is bundled in somehow then sure that is a good deal. But from what I've seen, every bundle of that sort can be had for less without the text message package.

I agree, it's really dumb but it's just a way for carriers to make money. I can understand them charging a little for managing and implementing text messaging, but it shouldn't be so expensive.

I'm not sure if it goes over the data or voice network, but I wonder how would they keep track of texts in terms of minutes or megabytes since its a different scale. i guess figuring out the size of a text message and deducting it from your data limit would work well

 

[nsB]

This is great...now i just gotta convince my friends that have droids to get iphones

 

[Kentochan]

For me, this is great because so many of the people I text have iPhones. My plan of $15 for 1000 texts a month is ridiculous, so maybe I could get a cheaper plan and save some cash.

 

[philitup23]

I want to test out iMessages. Can someone i-m me on AIM (philitup23) or give me their phone number so we can text and I can see how it is? None of my friends are developers.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Limited capacity explains perfectly higher price. Basic laws of economics.

sorry but that is not true. Go look up stuff on SMS.
They carriers actively suppress any information on that cost from being study even from the internal departments.

The cost for the carriers on SMS about the same to deliver 1million messages or a 100 million. It uses the control signal which would be in use anyways as long as your phone is connected to the network. The largest cost to them is storage but SMS are so small even compared to everything else they store on you that it is not even worth factoring in. Data storage cost around 100 bucks per terabyte these days. 10 years ago or so it was $1-2/gig but now it is what 0.10 per gig. Now storage is so cheap which is why you see free email having so much space once Google force their hand on how cheap it really is.

Some one just needs to force the carriers hand and they will say fine everyone gets it for free.

There was hope before the TMobile ATT merger crap that Sprint and T-Mobile could of forced it by just giving out unlimited txting with out any extra cost but no way in hell is VZW or AT&T going to give up that 100% per profit now.

 

[0dev]

For £10 a month I get unlimited texts, unlimited Internet, and 250 minutes, so I'm not really bothered about the cost.

However, these things do get popular quick. There's a massive BBM craze at the moment because it's like an exclusive club. Everyone with BlackBerries has a system where they can IM each other very conveniently. Now, Apple has the same for their devices.

The only issue is the decision to integrate it into the text app. That's a stupid idea. They should have gone for a seperate app with a contact list IMO. You want your users to be aware of it. It's part of building up the "coolness" of something like this.

 

[louiek]

If he choses your email address, the message will be sent as an iMessage to an iMessage server in the cloud. Any iOS device that has iMessage running (and that same email address registered within iMessage) will then pick up the message from the cloud either straight away, or when the device is turned back on if it is off. You can have multiple email addresses registered in the app.

Can you passcode protect your individual messages within the app so only the owner of that email address sees those messages?

 

[NightFox]

Can you passcode protect your individual messages within the app so only the owner of that email address sees those messages?

No, as far as I can see the app will just receive all messages sent to an email address or phone number associated with the Apple ID currently signed in to it; the messages are all just dumped together, there's no separation or even identification of which number/email address they were actually sent to. I think the app is built to work on the assumption that the Apple ID used to sign into it will be unique to one person. You can of course sign in to it with a different ID with which you could associate a different email address.

 

[0dev]

Sorry, but I don't see why people feel they should get texts for free if it isn't part of their plan. You pay for your calls and you pay for your texts. You can't expect to get it all handed to you for free. Yes, the networks do make big margins on texts, but they need to be profitable to stay in business.

How much are texts these days anyway? If I don't have a texting plan I get charged 4p. Four pence. That's nothing. If you drop that much on the floor you probably wouldn't bother picking it up.

Then factor in that most plans come with unlimited texts these days anyway, even if you're not on a contract. I even had a pay as you go SIM that gave me 300 free texts five years ago. (Anyone else remember the craze over the O2 Genie SIMs? Good times.) That was for a tenner a month. These days a tenner will get unlimited texts with some calls and internet thrown in too. And a free phone.

So, honestly, I don't get what there is to complain about. Sure, it'd be nice if we could just get everything for free, but that isn't how the world works, and we're already getting a fairly good deal.

 

[louiek]

I think the app is built to work on the assumption that the Apple ID used to sign into it will be unique to one person. You can of course sign in to it with a different ID with which you could associate a different email address.

Thanks for the info NightFox. While that's a safe assumption on a phone, it's not on an iPad. Accounts Apple, do you hear me, user accounts! Get rid of the file hierarchy if you want but give us separate user accounts.

 

[GoKyu]

Ha, answered my own question... from the Cult of Mac article:

Many people look to iMessages as a way to end their Texting Plans, but how can you keep from sending SMS messages on accident? Easy. iOS 5 allows users to turn off SMS messaging completely so that iMessages are the only protocol that can be sent. The reverse is also true in that you can turn off iMessage as well so that you’re only doing SMS.

Really? You can FINALLY turn off SMS completely? You just made my day.

I don't text people but maybe...5-6 times a year, tops. And yes, that's *times*, not *back and forth exchanges* - I don't have AT&T's obscenely expensive "plan", and I pay 25 cents per message.

The thing I worry about most is getting SMS spam that I have no control over. If I can completely shut this cr*p off, that'll be one of my favorite features in the entire upgrade...

 

[diamond.g]

Really? You can FINALLY turn off SMS completely? You just made my day.

I don't text people but maybe...5-6 times a year, tops. And yes, that's *times*, not *back and forth exchanges* - I don't have AT&T's obscenely expensive "plan", and I pay 25 cents per message.

The thing I worry about most is getting SMS spam that I have no control over. If I can completely shut this cr*p off, that'll be one of my favorite features in the entire upgrade...

From the screenshots it appears that you can keep yourself from sending SMS if iMessage isn't available, not actually turn off SMS. Even if you could turn off SMS in the iPhone, you would only be turning off your ability to send, not to receive. So you could still get SMS messages.

 

[42streetsdown]

This seems like a nice feature for phone users, but it seems to me Apple just can't make up their mind what to do with messaging between iChat, Facetime and now iMessage. Why not put all 3 into one messaging protocol that supports text and video messaging. Oh wait, iChat already did that. And people wonder why Skype is so popular?

I am curious to know if the new iMessages app for the Mac will send SMS messages to non-iPhones. That would be a useful feature. I can already chat with people on an iPhone with any one of the many messaging apps.

yeah they should integrate this into lion.