Walkthrough of Apple's iMessages in iOS 5

[MacAddict1978]

no but they do have an Apple ID which is link to my phone number and I have a feeling Apple will use that to link everything up.

If Apple started using your billing phone number without your consent to force you into iMessaging, don't you think they'd be sued left and right, and have government hearings on privacy violations? Good god. How far from reality are you really trying to take your paranoia about a feature you don't even have to turn on?!?!?

Maybe they'll take your credit card number from your apple ID and start you a Gevalia coffee subscription too? I hear that free k-cup machine they're giving away is rather nice. The odds of that happening are about the same.

 

[ianb821]

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.

No worries mate, there is an option in the settings labeled "Send Read Receipt", you can turn it off and they will not be able to tell if it has been read or not.

 

[MacAddict1978]

Someone earlier in this thread brought up a real-life usage scenario that, based on the info we have now, could be a real problem:

I own an iPod Touch/iPad running iOS 5 and a non-iPhone (BB, Android, whatever). I have iMessages set up on my iPod/iPad using my Apple ID (or however it's set up on an iOS device that doesn't have an associated phone number) so I can message friends who are using iPhones on iOS 5 using my iPod. Later, those same friends want to send me a text - because their iPhone sees that my contact entry is iMessage-enabled, it sends the message to my iPod. I never receive it because my iPod is at home and I'm at the bar with my non-iPhone.

Unless Apple has come up with some way to address this issue, I think iMessages should have been restricted to iPhones, or to iPods/iPads that are paired with iPhones. There's too much potential for people to think they're sending a text when it's actually going to an iPod/iPad that isn't with the recipient.

They color coded the send button! LOL. Blue and green (the two colors most people with color blindness issues can't see or distinguish between btw). In your example, that does pose an interesting question if you have activated it say on your iPod touch. I could see this being a pain. If you had to be online for it to work, it kind of is stupid. If you have to manually tell the app to revert to your phone, kind of stupid too. I think having it all as 1 unified app would be where confusion can happen. How many people would pay attention to the send button being blue or green? Perhaps someone with the beta will post about this soon.

Anyone using the beta have the answer? I would hope it would be more obvious like Facetime is.

 

[ianb821]

So will you be able to block people from getting a receipt that you read their message? I don't like the idea of everyone knowing the second I read their message, as a delayed response can be interpreted in different ways.

Yes, it's an option in the settings, I've attached a screenshot.

Let me know if you have any more questions, I might be able to help out.

 

[Trauma1]

Blue and green (the two colors most people with color blindness issues can't see or distinguish between btw).

Red-green is the most common.

 

[sladey]

Confused.

If I have the same apple id on my wife's and my iphone to enable icloud sync of calendar, photos, etc, then how do I iMessage her phone?

If we have separate apple ids on each iphone for iMessage, how do we sync with icloud?

 

[MacAddict1978]

The link that I posted doesn't even confirm or deny iMessage. Plus, it's a beta. Hopefully someone with first-hand experience can chime in.

So then what about iPad 1? New iOSs aren't always 100% compatible with older devices, so I wouldn't be surprised if pre-FaceTime iPod Touches aren't included. I'm not one to speculate, but to not include this with the iPad 1 (with its huge, newly formed market) would be silly.

The feature page on apple.com is showing compatibility with 3gs and up, and iPads 1&2 with all the announced features listed. Last time there was partial compatibility, they did highlight what areas wouldn't work (backgrounds, folders, etc.) Nothing about this update feel very heavy and more app driven so I don't see where they should have many snags. As long as it doesn't cripple devices like the poor 3G suffered. I'd wait to upgrade the 3GS when it's launched a few days to be safe.... since they make it very hard to downgrade without some hackery. If rumors of voice integration still possibly coming are true, that could change things up a bit.

 

[DocNYz]

Red-green is the most common.

Not only that but they chose green and blue because they're the most soothing feeling to the most people, whereas red has a connotation of warning/danger/blood/obligation etc. That's why scrubs are green or blue. I can't even begin to guess how far back in human history this has been known, addressed.

 

[nebo1ss]

And why would I be interested in Imessage, when I have unlimited SMS and only 1Gig of data per month? I would prefer to reserve my data usage for other purposes.

 

[ten-oak-druid]

I am paying $30 for unlimited texting on top of paying for a data plan. I'm saying that I can't completely drop it because not everyone I text has an iPhone. I like the idea, but unfortunately, it makes little to no difference for me. I know that they are ripping us off like this but I guess you are paying for the convenience of sending messages to any phone. I wouldn't pay so much money for texting, but it's not something I would want to give up and I guess that's just how the world works

I didn't understand what you meant by "double charging for data" though. Text messages are going through the carrier and you can send them whether you have a data plan or not. If you have a data plan, it doesn't count against you. (Or are you saying that text messages travel through the data network?)

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.

 

[iscott73]

Shared itunes account

My family shares my Itunes account to save money on apps and music and stuff. I guess I would text myself to send a message to my wife's iPhone. That's kinda crappy. But I would like the text received and read feature. Can you even texts yourself? I'm Not sure I will be liking this cloud service too much. I don't need my wife getting all my documents and stuff. lol Cant wait for the notification fix as well. Apple really did well this time. Hope they can deliver on time. Early Sept Plz.

 

[realspear]

What these comments show is how little the Apple fanboy world knows about reality. In fact, the big losers in this are not the carriers, they can always find ways to make more money off users, probably through increasing data fees. The big losers are the SMS aggregators. Every carrier has to go through the aggregators for their messaging, and the aggregators make a lot of money by doing nothing except routing between the carriers. Companies like mBlox are the ones that will be affected by this, and lose their market, not the carriers. Time to get your head out of the iPad and start looking at the real world.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Not that is really matters but the data part of a text message is 140 bytes. It is 160 characters but they are encoded 7 bits per character. Then you need to add in headers and acknowledgement. On top of that you need to add in delivery receipts if they are turned on.

The missing bit is often time a parity bit so still 8 bits per char and then the over head so to make the math easier 20% at 10 bits per char.

Also I was not talking about a delivery receipt to the person you are messaging. I was talking about delivery acknowledgement from the telecom system to tell your phone that it has receive the message. Basically between your phone and the tower. You send a message and when tower knows it has it all it sends the confirmation back to your phone. When your phone recieve an SMS it tells the tower "Hey I got it the package" Also the message could be small enough to fit inside a single frame so even better.

If Apple started using your billing phone number without your consent to force you into iMessaging, don't you think they'd be sued left and right, and have government hearings on privacy violations? Good god. How far from reality are you really trying to take your paranoia about a feature you don't even have to turn on?!?!?

Maybe they'll take your credit card number from your apple ID and start you a Gevalia coffee subscription too? I hear that free k-cup machine they're giving away is rather nice. The odds of that happening are about the same.

You really have not used contact searches very often have you. Often times you can do a search by phone numbers to see if you can find some contacts.

Even outside of that a lot of people store all the contact info under one name.
For example I know my family has under my contact info on their phone my phone number and email address. That email address happens to be my Apple ID one as well so yet again the system links it all up no problem at all. So even if my phone number is not link to my Apple ID my email is which in people contacts list are link together under one name.

Still boils down to the same problem.

 

[realspear]

This one is typical of the lack of any real knowledge:

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.

No, no, no. You're paying a lot for it because the carriers have to pay the SMS aggregators just to send a message. Spend a few minutes learning about something before posting ignorant nonsense.

 

[southernpaws]

It does sound and video too. I don't think you can do anything more with it. Perhaps tweek the interface? Increase the video chat to more than 4 people? I don't think its going away. I just think it is all set and we shouldn't expect new versions often.

they don't need to offer new features to improve it. Just integrate it more. FaceTime to iChat protocols even. The fact that they haven't makes me think that they're just letting it go

 

[Rodimus Prime]

This one is typical of the lack of any real knowledge:

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.

No, no, no. You're paying a lot for it because the carriers have to pay the SMS aggregators just to send a message. Spend a few minutes learning about something before posting ignorant nonsense.

even accounting for the aggregators SMS is near pure profit for the carriers.

30 a month for a family plan and even with 30k+ message sent the carrier is still making nearly 100% profit off of that 30 a month. SMS is near pure profit.

 

[Trauma1]

What these comments show is how little the Apple fanboy world knows about reality. In fact, the big losers in this are not the carriers, they can always find ways to make more money off users, probably through increasing data fees. The big losers are the SMS aggregators. Every carrier has to go through the aggregators for their messaging, and the aggregators make a lot of money by doing nothing except routing between the carriers. Companies like mBlox are the ones that will be affected by this, and lose their market, not the carriers. Time to get your head out of the iPad and start looking at the real world.

The data used is so small it is insignificant. The "fanboys" that you are referring to are likely to still be on an unlimited data plan (for the time being) so it's irrelevant.

 

[rjtyork]

Every single text messaging plan might not be costly, but the overwhelming majority of them are. Carriers grossly overcharge for a service that costs them almost nothing.

It's interesting that the carriers didn't know about this until we did. I'm sure they weren't happy!

I sure hope they aren't happy! They've been screwing us for too long. I'm glad I kept my unlimited data plan. I'm going to keep it for as long as I can because I can cut my phone bill to almost nothing by downgrading to the lowest possible minutes and no texting plan and route EVERY voice call through google voice and use google voice for my texting, as well. As for iMessaging, I bet I'll be using that a lot, too. A LOT of people I know have iPhones, iPads, or iPod touches and free texting to all of them with iMessages is going to be awesome. The only disadvantage I'm at is it will seem "fragmented". I'll have to try and remember who has an iDevice that I can text through iMessages for free and remember who doesn't so I know that I need to text them with my google voice.

 

[southernpaws]

1. To half the people posting in this thread: "Failure" is the word you are looking for. Not "Fail". Fail is a "doing" word. "Failure" is a state of something. You fail, and in doing so, both you and the thing you did are failures. See? Easy.

2. That is all. Thank you.

Either you have never seen epic fail.com and the way the word has been utilized recently, or you have a bunch of dang kids who won't stay off of your lawn.

 

[southernpaws]

how big of a video can you send?

Over 9000

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

It'd be great if I could check/answer messages while at the computer without having to take the iPhone out of my pocket.

 

[southernpaws]

I use text plus on my iPad and it costs nothing. The app was free and they provide a phone number for free as well.

That's nice. Except people will text your actual phone number by default. Now if they have an iPhone and do that you won't be charged for an incoming text

 

[octarine]

Sorry - Whatsapp is NOTHING like this because its usefulness hinges on the fact that the person on the other end of the conversation must also have Whatsapp installed. Yeah, that's not going to happen if you are over 17 years old.

The reason that SMS has been so wildly successful is that it is a dead-reliable instant messaging system that works for virtually every mobile phone ever built, is cross-carrier and cross platform, and requires no effort or configuration on the users end. As long as someone has your phone number, they can send you an SMS.

You're a little off the mark there. The usefulness of Whatsapp is that it works in exactly the way you describe iMessage. The unique key is the phone number. Only contacts with Whatsapp installed are highlighed in the whatsapp contact list. You can use SMS to message others. This works very very well (and scares the crap out of the carriers) no need to exchange a second set of credentials, and it uses the most complete data source that people keep (their phone book).

If iMessage also does this, it'll be very useful.
What I question is: are apple validating the phone number of my iphone? If you go to Settings -> Phone -> My Number and enter your boss's phone number, will you magically receive all his iMessages? I hope not.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I sure hope they aren't happy! They've been screwing us for too long. I'm glad I kept my unlimited data plan. I'm going to keep it for as long as I can because I can cut my phone bill to almost nothing by downgrading to the lowest possible minutes and no texting plan and route EVERY voice call through google voice and use google voice for my texting, as well. As for iMessaging, I bet I'll be using that a lot, too. A LOT of people I know have iPhones, iPads, or iPod touches and free texting to all of them with iMessages is going to be awesome. The only disadvantage I'm at is it will seem "fragmented". I'll have to try and remember who has an iDevice that I can text through iMessages for free and remember who doesn't so I know that I need to text them with my google voice.

you know routing your phone calls threw Google voice is going to suck down your minutes and with the lowest minute plan that is not going to give you the ability to have a number set to free.

Now Txting yeah you can get unlimited that way.

For me personally I use google voice for my VVM because it beats the crap out of anything else out there. 1. Do not have to pay a fee that some carriers charge.
2. I get all voice mail transcribed for free. Something that no one else is offering. Yeah the transcriptions are not perfect and often times have errors in them there is generally enough info I can pull out to get a rough idea on how important it is.

iMessaging people seem to think would allow them to get off SMS but lets face it iPhones do not have a majority of the market and chances are all iPhone users have people they txt with quite often that do not or even want an iPhone. Now carriers have seen people drop their voice plans down because of txting. Hell my family went from bumping the limit of minutes every month to now we have tons of roll over every month.

 

[southernpaws]

Unfortunately for us consumers, once the carriers start losing all the gravy that is text message fees, they'll just make it up somewhere else. It will be just like the banks when the new regs came along that prevented them from charging for "courtesy" overdrafts, they just jacked up the fees elsewhere to replace the lost income stream.

Personally, I abhor text messaging because it is a complete rip off. On the rare occasion that I have to send one, I use a free service. So I will welcome the new iMessage service; I'm just wary of the carriers' response when they begin to lose all those fees.

Possibly. But who is going to be the first to raise prices? ATT or Verizon? Who is willing to risk having their subscribers jump ship just to make some extra coin?