Did sending iMessages to email addresses recently stop working?

[levander]

In the Apple !estates app, it used to be you could send a message to an email address, if the address was registered with iCloud.

Did that stop working recently?

I just now had to send a text message to someone’s phone number even though I’ve been sending messages to their email address for years.

 

[teeshot44]

Perhaps that person stopped allowing their email address from receiving iMessages. I don't allow mine, only my phone number.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

^This, or they could have changed the email address they use as their Apple ID. And, we've been assuming these are being sent as iMessage (blue). If it's now sent in green then the recipient isn't reachable by iMessage. This could be temporary (a sign-in or technical issue) or permanent (switched to Android).

 

[levander]

I’ll check and see if she made any changes to her account...

 

[levander]

Well, I had access today to the person’s iPhone that I was trying to send an iMessage to. I checked her iCloud account and she had not unregistered her email address.

So I tried sending a text to her email address again, and the little search box you Get when you type in the To field for a new message was not showing her email address. But I hit enter after typing her email address in anyway. And after I typed in her email address, it did show up in blue in the To field. I sent her a text message that just said text, and it did show up in blue on my phone.

just another unstable quirk of the iOS software we’ve become more and more accustomed to over these last few years. All in all, she ended up just not getting two pretty important text messages I tried to send her. We were able to fix it the issue I was messaging about the next day though. Glad it wasn’t a much more important message. Because I do use the Message app to send vitally important messages sometimes.

It really irks me how Apple’s preferred method of reporting errors seems to be just not to report anything. Just to have their software act like nothing happened.

 

[HDFan]

It really irks me how Apple’s preferred method of reporting errors seems to be just not to report anything. Just to have their software act like nothing happened.

? There are multiple ways of reporting errors

1. Working with support, and they with development, to isolate and document a problem and file a bug as necessary.

2. https://www.apple.com/feedback/

As to if or when a bug will be fixed, that is an entirely different topic.

 

[NoBoMac]

Perhaps that person stopped allowing their email address from receiving iMessages. I don't allow mine, only my phone number.

^This, or they could have changed the email address they use as their Apple ID. And, we've been assuming these are being sent as iMessage (blue). If it's now sent in green then the recipient isn't reachable by iMessage. This could be temporary (a sign-in or technical issue) or permanent (switched to Android).

These, in a way.

As mentioned, a temporary server/network issue might have caused a snag.

Your device needs to verify that a phone number or email address is registered with Apple/Messages as reachable. So, blue does not happen instantly, as servers need to be pinged. Once it's verified, turns the address blue (or green). Slow network or bad cell zone can slow it down, but once the address is verified, it should stay "valid" for a while, but will eventually be tagged as "stale", so back to another verification when whatever expiration date/time Apple has lapses. Rinse/repeat.

 

[levander]

? There are multiple ways of reporting errors

1. Working with support, and they with development, to isolate and document a problem and file a bug as necessary.

2. https://www.apple.com/feedback/

As to if or when a bug will be fixed, that is an entirely different topic.

you didn’t quite get what I was talking about. But even what you’re talking about, 95% of the time, Apple doesn’t respond to those methods either. And actually I’ve been through your method 1 a couple of times where at first Apple has told me they verified the bug in their labs. Then they don’t fix it. And I called back six months later and they said still working. Then Imcalled back six months later they acted like I had no idea what I was talking about. Wasn’t in there system. Happened that way both times Apple said they verified serious bugs I found.

 

[levander]

These, in a way.

As mentioned, a temporary server/network issue might have caused a snag.

Your device needs to verify that a phone number or email address is registered with Apple/Messages as reachable. So, blue does not happen instantly, as servers need to be pinged. Once it's verified, turns the address blue (or green). Slow network or bad cell zone can slow it down, but once the address is verified, it should stay "valid" for a while, but will eventually be tagged as "stale", so back to another verification when whatever expiration date/time Apple has lapses. Rinse/repeat.

Yeah, the problem was something like that. But somehow my phone cached incorrectly that the email address I had been iMessaging forever wasn’t registered. Me coming back a month later and playing with again eventually got the erroneous information de-cached somehow.

No idea why me playing with it the first time didn’t de-cache the erroneous information. Because the first time I played with it, I literally spent over half an hour trying various things. The second time, after trying things for five minutes, it de-cached somehow.