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Does iMessage Suck?
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
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I hear a lot of people bitch about it, but I fail to see the suck vector.
Make no mistake, it used to be garbage, but I've felt they fixed most of the deal-breakers awhile back.
Free texts, which show up on all my iDevices and computers, with delivery confirmation. That's pretty not that bad.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
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I just wish the Messages OS X app would fall back to delivering SMS messages when iMessage is not available.
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Clinically Insane
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I think that's an option. At least in iOS 7.
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Clinically Insane
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OS X, not iOS.
And this can't be an option anywhere in the world outside of North America, because nobody else has implemented the idiotic idea that a RECIPIENT pays for SMS that somebody else sent him.
So here in Europe, iMessage can't default to sending SMS unless you're actually in a cellular network and can be billed for it.
(technically simplified version)
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Clinically Insane
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Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot
OS X, not iOS.
And this can't be an option anywhere in the world outside of North America, because nobody else has implemented the idiotic idea that a RECIPIENT pays for SMS that somebody else sent him.
So here in Europe, iMessage can't default to sending SMS unless you're actually in a cellular network and can be billed for it.
(technically simplified version)
No email to SMS gateway possibility?
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Moderator
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Sure it's possible, but Apple would be charged by operators for each SMS. One possible way is if they could somehow offer to send the SMS as if it came from your phone number, but I don't know if that's technically possible - seems like an invitation to abuse.
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The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
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Originally Posted by besson3c
No email to SMS gateway possibility?
Services like GMX allow for this as part of their paid plans, which include e.g. 10 free SMS (any more than that are billed separately).
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Addicted to MacNN
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Originally Posted by P
Sure it's possible, but Apple would be charged by operators for each SMS. One possible way is if they could somehow offer to send the SMS as if it came from your phone number, but I don't know if that's technically possible - seems like an invitation to abuse.
Wait, if you send an SMS to someone via email (e.g. [email protected] or whatever), the carrier charges the email provider?
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Sell or send me your vintage Mac things if you don't want them.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
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You don't send an SMS via e-mail. What you describe above simply doesn't exist in countries where the person performing an action is responsible for its cost.
The service sends an SMS. You just tell it to send the SMS via a web portal. THEIR carrier bills them. The service bills you.
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Addicted to MacNN
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That sucks. Here in the United States every cell phone number has an email address through which you can send text messages. Makes it easy to send SMS even if you aren't paying for text messages on your cell phone plan.
Phones can send SMS to email addresses too.
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Sell or send me your vintage Mac things if you don't want them.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
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OTOH, I find it...strange...that somebody else could decide to send me a message, and I have to pay for it, without even being asked.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
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Originally Posted by shifuimam
That sucks. Here in the United States every cell phone number has an email address through which you can send text messages. Makes it easy to send SMS even if you aren't paying for text messages on your cell phone plan.
Phones can send SMS to email addresses too.
I think somebody should create an "Non-American, but not Canadian or Australian denial" thread...
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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Originally Posted by besson3c
I just wish the Messages OS X app would fall back to delivering SMS messages when iMessage is not available.
Oops... Misread that.
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Irvine, CA
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iMessage is slow. I send a message, a simple message, and it sometimes gets delivered minutes later. AOL IM was much faster than this. Sending a simple picture takes a long time. Whatsapp is much faster.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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While not consistently so, I find iMessage faster than SMS.
Of course, the problem with any other app is getting other people on the platform.
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Moderator
Join Date: Apr 2000
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When comparing SMS services, it is important to note that SMS was enabled on the original GSM networks in Europe around 1992-93, while US operators only bothered by the end of the century. Between those two dates, the Internet arrived in the common consciousness. When SMS launched in Europe, few knew what email was, and SMS grew on its own - very slowly at first. When it launched in the US, email was already common, so an email gateway was an obvious thing to include in the launch to improve usability at a time when few used it.
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The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Pittsburgh
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I find iMessages to be very quick, much faster than SMS. Though I live in an LTE city and consistently have near-maximum reception.
I think BBM, if it ever launches, could be a formidable opponent; I know most of my friends were using BBM before they had iPhones so the familiarity is there. and tying iOS and Android messaging together is quite the advantage. I would seriously consider BBM if both my iOS and Android contacts were open to moving to it as the primary messaging service.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
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Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot
OTOH, I find it...strange...that somebody else could decide to send me a message, and I have to pay for it, without even being asked.
As data becomes king, the days of paying per-text or having a text allotment are going away. I haven't had a limited number of texts since 2005.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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Originally Posted by abbaZaba
I find iMessages to be very quick, much faster than SMS. Though I live in an LTE city and consistently have near-maximum reception.
I think BBM, if it ever launches, could be a formidable opponent; I know most of my friends were using BBM before they had iPhones so the familiarity is there. and tying iOS and Android messaging together is quite the advantage. I would seriously consider BBM if both my iOS and Android contacts were open to moving to it as the primary messaging service.
I'd be cool with BBM as well.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status:
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Originally Posted by P
When comparing SMS services, it is important to note that SMS was enabled on the original GSM networks in Europe around 1992-93, while US operators only bothered by the end of the century. Between those two dates, the Internet arrived in the common consciousness. When SMS launched in Europe, few knew what email was, and SMS grew on its own - very slowly at first. When it launched in the US, email was already common, so an email gateway was an obvious thing to include in the launch to improve usability at a time when few used it.
Up until just these past few years, it's also been a MASSIVE cash cow for mobile carriers.
That didn't change until WhatsApp (and iMessage), really.
It's only been this year that most plans include SMS flat-rates on T-Mobile Germany, for example.
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Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Polwaristan
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It works great for me and I imessage all over the US and some internationally. It doesn't help that Verizon doesn't support 2-way texting with nearly all major Russian cell providers. Lame. But at least imessage works well.
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Land of Enchantment
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I love iMessage, have it set to use sms for non iUsers. It's so easy to have a daylong conversation without interrupting my work.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
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Doesn't the Messages app ALWAYS use SMS for non-iUsers?
The setting is to fall back to SMS when an iMessage user isn't online and the message times out.
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Originally Posted by besson3c
I just wish the Messages OS X app would fall back to delivering SMS messages when iMessage is not available.
And how would that work technically? No Mac is connected to the cell phone network, and Apple for sure doesn't want to carry the cost of sending billions of SMS for their users.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
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Originally Posted by TETENAL
And how would that work technically? No Mac is connected to the cell phone network, and Apple for sure doesn't want to carry the cost of sending billions of SMS for their users.
You might want to read the rest of the thread first.
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Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Toronto, Canada
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I like iMessage because it doesn't rely on your telephone number like Whatsapp, if you travel frequently and use disposable sim cards your number changes fairly often. iMessage as other posters have mentioned work on all Apple devices where as Whatsapp is limited to your phone because it relies on your phone number.
There are some minor improvements I'd make to iMessage, the ability to send read receipts for group chat and 1 click to send your location would be great when you're meeting up with friends instead of having to switch to Maps.
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2.66Ghz Mac Pro 2GM Ram 160Gig HD Ati X1900XT, 24" Dell 2407WFP
13.3" Mac Book Core Duo 2GIG Ram 80Gig HD
12" PowerBook 1.5Ghz 1.25GB Ram 60Gig HD
12" iBook 600Mhz (Late 2001) 640MB Ram 30Gig HD
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: May 2007
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As long as you have one consistent phone number in service, you don't have to change your WhatsApp phone number when you travel. I have a UK SIM, Canada SIM, and US SIM, all used often. I always use my UK number for WhatsApp. When I swap SIMs, and open WhatsApp it notices the network changed, and asks me if I want to change my WhatsApp number, I do not change it. People can always reach me on WhatsApp at the same number.
With iMessage when I swap SIMs, iMessage changes the phone number linked to my iMessage account, it doesn't give me the option to keep the same number, or use both numbers.
I use an email address as my primary contact for iMessage, so friends/family/colleagues don't have to keep track of what number is active for iMessage. For this reason, when travelling internationally I find WhatsApp more convenient.
The biggest complaint I had with iMessage is lack of time stamps for every message. However, you can now slide a message bubble to the left to see the timestamps for all messages.
My apologies if a bit off topic.
Originally Posted by bleee
I like iMessage because it doesn't rely on your telephone number like Whatsapp, if you travel frequently and use disposable sim cards your number changes fairly often. iMessage as other posters have mentioned work on all Apple devices where as Whatsapp is limited to your phone because it relies on your phone number.
There are some minor improvements I'd make to iMessage, the ability to send read receipts for group chat and 1 click to send your location would be great when you're meeting up with friends instead of having to switch to Maps.
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Moderator
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Great first post, thanks for the info and welcome to macnn.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Sep 2000
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My opinion: iMessage on iOS generally works well. But, a related aspect to why iMessage may suck is its poor sync capability to Messages on OS X. An ongoing discussion on Apple forums describes the issues that many users (including me) encounter with how individual iMessages appear in the OS X client:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0
If messages are sent with both the iOS and OS X clients running (i.e. network connected, machine on, etc.), then these sync well, and appear almost simultaneously at each interface (in my use). But in the common scenario of sending more messages with, e.g. an iPhone, while the Mac is sleeping, the messages can sync back to the Mac completely out of time-stamp order. You just find a jumble of messages, sorted by sender but scrambled within or across days. This breaks the paradigm, since conversations aren't consistent among devices.
So does it mean that iMessage sucks? Not entirely, but part of its promise is this direct sync to the Mac. The conversation in the forums regarding this issue has been ongoing for a year, and multiple users report submitting bug reports to Apple (only available under the old iChat category). There's no reliable fix yet, even with multiple 10.8.x updates.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
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Originally Posted by TETENAL
And how would that work technically? No Mac is connected to the cell phone network, and Apple for sure doesn't want to carry the cost of sending billions of SMS for their users.
Email -> SMS gateway, only I didn't realize that even this this costs money abroad.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
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Originally Posted by daharrin
My opinion: iMessage on iOS generally works well. But, a related aspect to why iMessage may suck is its poor sync capability to Messages on OS X. An ongoing discussion on Apple forums describes the issues that many users (including me) encounter with how individual iMessages appear in the OS X client:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0
If messages are sent with both the iOS and OS X clients running (i.e. network connected, machine on, etc.), then these sync well, and appear almost simultaneously at each interface (in my use). But in the common scenario of sending more messages with, e.g. an iPhone, while the Mac is sleeping, the messages can sync back to the Mac completely out of time-stamp order. You just find a jumble of messages, sorted by sender but scrambled within or across days. This breaks the paradigm, since conversations aren't consistent among devices.
So does it mean that iMessage sucks? Not entirely, but part of its promise is this direct sync to the Mac. The conversation in the forums regarding this issue has been ongoing for a year, and multiple users report submitting bug reports to Apple (only available under the old iChat category). There's no reliable fix yet, even with multiple 10.8.x updates.
Yeah, I've noticed the messages sometimes being out of order too.
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Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: San Antonio TX USA
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I've sort of depended on iMessage for work communication for the past couple of years, connecting with iPhone and non-iPone users while on-the-go at work. I've never had a problem with it in that role, though I HAVE had issues between my phone and my wife's (both iPhone 4S's) with messages being slow to be delivered (usually when it's most inconvenient to have a delay). Much easier to call if I don't get an immediate reply.
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Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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If anything, the worst thing about iMessage is if you use multiple devices you can't save battery on your phone by turning off cellular data.
Last time I tested that I got two days of battery life.
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Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2001
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If battery life is that important, turning off cell data is an easy decision and stops all apps and services, which seems more desirable for the user making that choice than imessage carving out an exception for itself.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
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iMessage wouldn't need an exception, it would just need to be smart enough to know to send as an SMS if it can't reach a client with cellular voice capabilities.
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Moderator
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It sends as sms if it can't reach with iMessage.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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AFAIK, only if you have no other iMessage clients.
This may have changed, but let's say I have an iPhone and an iPad with iMessage. The phone is with me (data off), the pad is at home.
If someone sends me an iMessage, it lands on my iPad. That's enough for iMessage to have considered it delivered. I never get it on my phone.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Caught in a web of deceit.
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I never use iMessage. When it first came out, it was unreliable. I tried it again weeks later and it was still unreliable. Then I just shut it off for good. And then now comes iOS 7, and it's still unreliable.
OTOH, at least on my carrier, SMS and MMS are bulletproof. They also have the advantage of being cross-platform, and they don't even require a smartphone.
About the only thing I like about iMessage (and other instant messaging protocols) is that it forced the carriers to be reasonable with their plans with regards to SMS and MMS. Both my wife's plan and my plan include free unlimited domestic and international SMS and MMS, which means basically there is no reason at all anymore to use the less reliable iMessage.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
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Originally Posted by Eug
About the only thing I like about iMessage (and other instant messaging protocols) is that it forced the carriers to be reasonable with their plans with regards to SMS and MMS. Both my wife's plan and my plan include free unlimited domestic and international SMS and MMS, which means basically there is no reason at all anymore to use the less reliable iMessage.
No message length limit and better multiple-person conversations are why I use iMessage.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
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Originally Posted by Cold Warrior
It sends as sms if it can't reach with iMessage.
It fails (at least right now) do do that consistently.
-t
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
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That has worked fine here with the exception of two days early last week.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 2000
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Originally Posted by turtle777
It fails (at least right now) do do that consistently.
That was one of my issues with iMessage when it first was released.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: planning a comeback !
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Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot
That has worked fine here with the exception of two days early last week.
It seems that iOS7 made it much worse. I have had on and off problems over the last 7 days.
I read somewhere that this will be fixed with iOS 7.0.3.
-t
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Clinically Insane
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I seem to be one of the lucky ones in that regard. No problems I've noticed in the phone implementation, which is what matters to me.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 2000
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Originally Posted by Laminar
No message length limit and better multiple-person conversations are why I use iMessage.
I think the best reason is that you can use it on non-phone devices... but since non-phone devices aren't linked by phone numbers, this is a big problem for some people (like me).
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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In what way? I have non phone devices too. Works fine.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 2000
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Originally Posted by subego
In what way? I have non phone devices too. Works fine.
Your non-iPhone iDevices receive their iMessages using the email address, not the phone number. Fortunately, you can link a phone number to your Apple ID email so you can get iMessages to your phone number on your iPad. Unfortunately, if someone sends you an SMS (not iMessage) to your phone number, you won't get it on your iPad.
As far as I'm concerned, this makes iPad iMessaging pointless.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
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Gotcha.
I always have my phone, so for me the iPad functionality is more to save me a trip to the pocket.
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