iMessage issues that are really start to annoy me

[rayjay86]

One question I had about iMessage. I love it, don't get me wrong but there are some bugs that quite frankly I find unacceptable since they aren't just "things I can live with".

- Sometimes when I send an iMessage it will switch over to a text randomly. I am connected to Wifi so I assume the other person isn't on a data signal and can only get SMS. Fine, I accept that, IF that is the case
- Sometimes I get the above but often what will happen is my iMessage will just not send. I get the little red exclamation mark beside it and it will not send not matter how many times I try again. This only happens to SOME contacts sometimes (I can send iMessages to other contacts) but other times it'll happen for ALL iMessages. I should note that the majority of the time I am on wifi with a strong signal but it has happened on 3G before also
- Is there a way (3rd party app) to toggle iMessage on an off quickly if for instance I have friend that I know are traveling abroad and have their data roaming turned off? That way I know they'll get my sms-based text; or does iMessage recognize that their phone number is "roaming" and sends the message via sms?

 

[urkel]

IMO, iMessage fits right along with all the other new features and services in that they all work better in the commercials than in reality.

 

[gentlefury]

I haven't had any of these problems...I switched off SMS texting, so it won't accidentally send an SMS, since most of my friends have iPhones and the ones that don't I just don't text. I haven't had a single message get denied....as for the iCloud not working comment....what issues have you had? Mine backs up every night...my calendars, reading list, notes, contacts, and bookmarks sync up perfectly on my Mac Pro, Macbook Air, iPhone and iPad. Are you saying that because it hasn't actually worked for you, or are you just trying to be cool?

 

[WeegieMac]

Another issue I have found, is having to turn it off because of pain in the arse family members who have just got iPhones using it to message you about mundane ****.

 

[gloss]

One question I had about iMessage. I love it, don't get me wrong but there are some bugs that quite frankly I find unacceptable since they aren't just "things I can live with".

- Sometimes when I send an iMessage it will switch over to a text randomly. I am connected to Wifi so I assume the other person isn't on a data signal and can only get SMS. Fine, I accept that, IF that is the case
- Sometimes I get the above but often what will happen is my iMessage will just not send. I get the little red exclamation mark beside it and it will not send not matter how many times I try again. This only happens to SOME contacts sometimes (I can send iMessages to other contacts) but other times it'll happen for ALL iMessages. I should note that the majority of the time I am on wifi with a strong signal but it has happened on 3G before also
- Is there a way (3rd party app) to toggle iMessage on an off quickly if for instance I have friend that I know are traveling abroad and have their data roaming turned off? That way I know they'll get my sms-based text; or does iMessage recognize that their phone number is "roaming" and sends the message via sms?

1) and 3) It will send a text only if it can't contact the phone via data to confirm that it's capable of iMessage. This can happen if the end-user has cellular data turned off OR if they're somewhere where the data connection is lousy. I'm not positive, but it can also happen if YOU happen to be somewhere where the data connection stinks; iMessage basically times out and resorts to SMS instead.

 

[rayjay86]

Yeah I think that's a good feature i that is the case regarding whether the end user is using data or not.

I will try and post a picture showing what I mean about iMessage. It happened yesterday and it was kind of the last straw, really annoying. I sent an iMessage to my brother who has an iPhone with iOS 5. I've iMessaged him tons of times without issue. Every time I clicked send it would give me an error. I tried several times and the exclamation mark would show up. I waited for a while (about an hour) and eventually when I sent the message it worked. I was on a wifi network at home which was working because I was browsing the internet. Sitting right beside the router so signal strength couldn't have been an issue.

 

[bov]

doesn't iMessage use cell phone networks rather than wifi? maybe it's that, how's your signal strength look?

 

[Zcott]

doesn't iMessage use cell phone networks rather than wifi? maybe it's that, how's your signal strength look?

It goes over wifi, then carrier data if that's not available.

 

[unobtainium]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

The bug that annoys me most is when iMessage says "message not delivered" and the little exclamation mark, but then I get a response from the other person showing that the message did, in fact, go through. Anyone else get this problem occasionally? Seems to mostly happen in poor coverage areas.

 

[adityashah1989]

The only issue I have with iMessage is that its not on Mac yet. Addition of groups won't be a bad feature either.

 

[tack1]

The only issue I have with iMessage is that its not on Mac yet. Addition of groups won't be a bad feature either.

I agree, but until they fix it to go to multiple devices whether you use the email address or phone number, it really won't do what I want it to do. I want it to send to all my devices, even if someone send the message to my phone number. That way my iPad and hopefully Mac/Pc in the future get the messages as well.

Future features I would like also:

(1) Group messaging
(2) Text forwarding and reply to iPad and desktop even if someone does not have iMessage. That way I can always be connected.

If they built these in, they would kill BBM and a lot of IM clients. It would be great.

 

[Kyotoma]

It goes over wifi, then carrier data if that's not available.

Its actually always over Cellular data. I've found that in low coverage areas I have to switch off cellular data and just go over WiFi in order to send/receive iMessages.

 

[Mliii]

Its actually always over Cellular data. I've found that in low coverage areas I have to switch off cellular data and just go over WiFi in order to send/receive iMessages.

I'm not sure this is accurate. I've been in Airplane Mode with WiFi on and sent & received messages which, obviously, means it's using WiFi...

 

[rayjay86]

Its actually always over Cellular data. I've found that in low coverage areas I have to switch off cellular data and just go over WiFi in order to send/receive iMessages.

Not sure that is true. I've found that on wifi my messages send really fast (when they work) judged by the speed of the status bar from zero to completion. On 3G that bar moves a little slower (but faster than regular SMS). When I'm at home or at work, on a wifi connection, that bar moves just as fast as if I have Airplane mode turned on. That suggests to me that iMessages preferentially sends over wifi which should be faster anyways.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

The bug that annoys me most is when iMessage says "message not delivered" and the little exclamation mark, but then I get a response from the other person showing that the message did, in fact, go through. Anyone else get this problem occasionally? Seems to mostly happen in poor coverage areas.

Yeah I get that too. Then the recipient ends up with three of the same message because I've tried to resend three times.

 

[petsounds]

1) iMessage certainly can use wifi, and probably prioritizes its usage like other data services. I just returned from Europe, and used it over wifi quite a bit.

2) It's very unclear as a user (without reading) what it means when iMessage is active. Does the blue button mean that both you (the sender) and the recipient are on a data network? Or does it just mean that the recipient has iOS 5, but may not currently be on a data network? I haven't actually had a chance to use iMessage domestically yet (in the States), but when roaming internationally I would send an iMessage, and if the European recipient wasn't on a data network they wouldn't receive the message until they hopped back on a data network. It would not downgrade to text message. This obviously led to some communication problems. I'm not sure if this is an edge case for international text mesages, or if this is standard behavior.

 

[TuiSong]

when roaming internationally I would send an iMessage, and if the European recipient wasn't on a data network they wouldn't receive the message until they hopped back on a data network. It would not downgrade to text message. This obviously led to some communication problems. I'm not sure if this is an edge case for international text mesages, or if this is standard behavior.

This is exactly the problem I am having here in New Zealand (not europe) My daughter and I are on a fairly limited data plan for our phones so we keep it switched off unless we are actively using it, mainly to prevent any accidental use (I have 100mb a month) I've found it really frustrating to try and send her standard texts. iMessage will send it as a iMessage and I have no idea if she got it and is ignoring me, or if it's just floating about somewhere waiting on her to get within range of a wifi signal. Sometimes she gets home and says hello and then ping ping, the messages turn up on her phone... hours later

I was told that if I hold my finger on a sent iMessage that I can select to send it as a text instead, but really? this isn't very intuitive at all and feels overly complex. I shouldn't have to try and guess if she is able to receive message or text. Best solution I can see for this is if it actually pops up and tells you outright within a few moments, "unable to send imessage do you wish to send as text?" I'm really hoping apple fix this and make it work the way their products usually do

 

[jmmo20]

I travel frequently between the UK and Spain.
What I do in order not to confuse my contacts, is to turn off iMessage when I swap sim cards. That way if I have my UK sim my contacts who have my spanish number won't be able to imessage me (they'll get the green SMS button).

 

[jolt927]

I always assumed iMessage used wi-fi, just like any other data service would. However, according to Anandtech's iOS5 review, it will always prefer to use cellular data, even while connected to wi-fi, unless cellular data is unavailable or turned off. This is for strictly text-based iMessages; iMessages containing multimedia transmit over wi-fi if available.

From: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4956/apple-ios-5-review/3

"First off, what’s surprising in the case of the iPhone is that iMessage appears to prioritize cellular data for strictly text delivery. When I first configured my MITM, I thought I was doing it wrong, studied my setup, and then turned airplane mode on (to disable cellular) and re-enabled WiFi. After doing this, I then saw APNS working back and forth across my internet connection. After more experimentation, I’ve determined that messages prefer cellular, but larger payloads like photos and video go over WLAN. Why the strange dichotomy? Well, cellular networks (at least 3G ones) are generally safer and more trusted than any random WLAN (I was even using WPA2, so this isn’t a matter of things being different on public WiFi), so I can understand Apple’s hesitation to use WiFi by default for fear of someone eventually doing a MITM attack on TLS. That said, it’s just a bit confusing."

 

[jmmo20]

I always assumed iMessage used wi-fi, just like any other data service would. However, according to Anandtech's iOS5 review, it will always prefer to use cellular data, even while connected to wi-fi, unless cellular data is unavailable or turned off. This is for strictly text-based iMessages; iMessages containing multimedia transmit over wi-fi if available.

From: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4956/apple-ios-5-review/3

"First off, what’s surprising in the case of the iPhone is that iMessage appears to prioritize cellular data for strictly text delivery. When I first configured my MITM, I thought I was doing it wrong, studied my setup, and then turned airplane mode on (to disable cellular) and re-enabled WiFi. After doing this, I then saw APNS working back and forth across my internet connection. After more experimentation, I’ve determined that messages prefer cellular, but larger payloads like photos and video go over WLAN. Why the strange dichotomy? Well, cellular networks (at least 3G ones) are generally safer and more trusted than any random WLAN (I was even using WPA2, so this isn’t a matter of things being different on public WiFi), so I can understand Apple’s hesitation to use WiFi by default for fear of someone eventually doing a MITM attack on TLS. That said, it’s just a bit confusing."

That's not surprising at all. the Iphone always assume that the most reliable network at any given time is the cellular network, since you can walk out of a wifi network quite easily.

that's why all push connections (such as icloud or mail) are kept alive using the cellular network even when you have wifi.

 

[xraydoc]

** Here's another one:

I sent an iMessage to my wife. The message was sent to her iCloud ID so it'd show up both on her iPhone and on her iPad. She was in a location (overseas) where she didn't have a data connection on her iPhone (or iPad). The message was not delivered but did NOT switch to SMS.

Her contact information on my end has her iPhone mobile number in it (labelled iPhone). So why didn't it switch to SMS? I couldn't even force it to send as SMS by tap & hold on the message bubble. Only "copy" came up. I had do start a new thread with the iMessage sent to her mobile number, not iCloud ID - now it'll go from iMessage to SMS, depending on the recipient's connection, automatically. But doing it this way it won't be synced to her iPad.

Seems iMessage should be smart enough to know that if the recipient doesn't have a data connection it should send the message to that person's mobile number as a fallback, even if the message was originally sent to an iCloud ID and not a mobile number.

 

[russell2]

I travel frequently between the UK and Spain.
What I do in order not to confuse my contacts, is to turn off iMessage when I swap sim cards. That way if I have my UK sim my contacts who have my spanish number won't be able to imessage me (they'll get the green SMS button).

I set it so that it uses my me.com email as the Receive At message once in the Receive At menu you can click on Apple Id and sign in or out then when you are logged in the email/appleid you want go to Caller ID and select the correct one then tell people to use your email address if they would like to imessage you.

 

[petsounds]

I sent an iMessage to my wife. The message was sent to her iCloud ID so it'd show up both on her iPhone and on her iPad. She was in a location (overseas) where she didn't have a data connection on her iPhone (or iPad). The message was not delivered but did NOT switch to SMS.

Yes, that mirrors what I said above with my overseas experience. iMessage should definitely fall back to SMS, but it doesn't. This may be an international roaming issue though.