iMessage creates multiple threads when messaging same contact

[guywhoisweird]

My girlfriend and I both updated to iOS 5 on our various devices and we're having trouble with iMessages. I have an iPad and an iPhone, she only has an iPhone.

GF's phone
Thread A - girlfriend's message thread with boyfriend's cell phone number
Thread B - girlfriend's iMessage thread

BF's phone
Thread C - boyfriend's unified message thread (iMessage + SMS from gf's phone)

I used my iPad to send her the first few iMessages. I understand why that would be in a separate thread - the message is linked to my email instead of my apple id.

I then sent her a text from my phone. That appeared in Thread A, as it should have because it was a regular SMS (I was trying to make it switch over). I was confused, so I asked her to reply to the iMessage. I received that reply as an iMessage in Thread C, the same thread as all of my SMSs. I then got switched over to iMessage. I sent her a few iMessages and they were all delivered to Thread B on my girlfriend's phone.

I checked the settings on my phone and I saw that the "Caller ID" in messages was set to my phone number, not my email.

What I'm confused about is why the messages + iMessages are appearing in a unified thread for me but in two separate threads for her. Any help would be greatly appreciated. She would both like to continue using the same message thread and would not have to deal with two separate threads each time we use the service.

 

[theesco]

I have the exact same problem.
Except in my Girlfriends case, her first thread, thread A to my phone number lost all messages that happened in the last week, when she tried to reply.

She has save our history and doesn't want to delete the only thread. It kind sucks that she is forced to start a new thread even though my phone number never changed.

I'm also worried that everybody else I send a txt to now will receive it in a new thread.

Bad transition to iMessage.

 

[sooner518]

ive had somewhat this same problem for the last 2 weeks and its been driving me nuts. Here's my scenario from start to finish:

I have 2 friends who both have iPhone 4's (I'll call them Sam and Jane). I have an iPhone 4 and an iPad2. Im sending from my email address in my iphone and iPad and have made sure that the CallerID is set to that same email address in my iPhone. (both friends have added this email address to my contact in their phone as well.)

I will send an iMessage frmo my phone to Sam and Jane and it will appear in Thread A for them. They will respond and 90% of the time, I receive it on both my phone and my iPad. 10% of the time, I only receive it on my phone. Sometimes when I respond to them, or just message them, it creates an entirely separate Thread B on their phones. this seems to happen mainly when I have been sending iMessages from my phone, but switch to the iPad or vice versa, but NOT ALL THE TIME.

I have had instances where I will send them several iMessages throughout the day from work, all from my phone, and they will all of a sudden say "you're now responding in a different thread". I have no idea how this could happen when all the messages were sent from my phone!

I have completely deleted the threads from my phone adn ipad and they have deleted all the threads on their phones as well. in hopes that a fresh start would lead to a single thread, but it created 2 new threads soon after.

I really dont understand how Apple screwed this up so badly. It shouldnt be that difficult and it shouldnt be this difficult to set it up correctly. any ideas?????

 

[Dave6195]

Have almost identical problem to the op. Im trying something at the moment to see of it works. Ive changed my 'caller id' in iMessage to 'email' on both my iPhone and iPad (its the only option on iPad). Hopefully this solves it, its working ok so far (2 days).

 

[sooner518]

Have almost identical problem to the op. Im trying something at the moment to see of it works. Ive changed my 'caller id' in iMessage to 'email' on both my iPhone and iPad (its the only option on iPad). Hopefully this solves it, its working ok so far (2 days).

i changed that option 2 weeks ago (or whenever the GM came out), still having problems.

 

[sooner518]

try going to Settings>General>Reset>Reset NEtwork Settings

This will delete all of your wifi network passwords, but it seems to have fixed this problem. so far, my friends have received my messages in one thread only.

 

[swordfish5736]

i had this problem at first went to send the wife an iMessage from my iPad then switched back to my phone and she said there were a few different threads running. Went into the message settings on the phone and the caller id is set by default to your phone number. I changed it to the same email address I'm using on my iPad and from the look if it no multiple threads and all messages are arriving on iPad and iPhone

 

[GraphicsGeek]

Guys all of you are having this problem because your recipient is probably sending you iMessages from an iPhone AND an iPad/iPod Touch. Since the latter can't use a phone number, it uses the Apple ID. Scroll up to the top of the message and tap Contact. See which number is highlighted. I'd bet theyre coming from different sources.

 

[sooner518]

Guys all of you are having this problem because your recipient is probably sending you iMessages from an iPhone AND an iPad/iPod Touch. Since the latter can't use a phone number, it uses the Apple ID. Scroll up to the top of the message and tap Contact. See which number is highlighted. I'd bet theyre coming from different sources.

that wasnt my problem at all. the only recipients who complained about it to me only own iPhone 4's. the problem is that OUR phones/ipads were creating multiple threads on THEIR phones, despite ALL CallerIDs/message settings being set to my AppleID.

The Reset Network Settings so far has appeared to fix this problem for some reason. They said that all my messages since yesterday afternoon have all showed up in the same thread, regardless of whether I sent it from my iPhone or iPad.