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The new iMessage
- Thread starter xero9
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When I first open iMessage and go to a conversation, the camera, heart thing, and "A" button take up about 1/2 the width of the screen down there. True, as soon as I tap in the text box, those buttons slide out of the way and the keyboard pops up, but I just wish there was a way to turn them off so I can get the full text box back without having to tap in there.
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Some of it is a bit gimmicky but it's just the kind of stuff that a lot of people like now... at least they hid it away in a nice way and it's not as atrocious and cluttered as Facebook messenger.
And this is really what all of this realistically comes down to.
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But you aren't using the text box until you tap on it, in which case it expands to basically the same size as before.
No, it's not what it realistically comes down to.
If your lock screen defaulted to advertising and every time you went to unlock your iPhone you had to sit through a 15 second commercial pimping the latest 12 year old girl's Nickelodeon "Victorious" spinoff, you'd be okay with that?
If every time you launched the Music app a Justin Bieber song played because all the 12 year old girls are just sooo into him, you'd be okay with that?
Yeah, it's like that. That's what it realistically comes down to.
BJ
None of these things are happening or will happen and they don't even vaguely resemble the iMessage situation.
I feel like you should look up the word realistic
Sure they do. iMessage is now a cluttered mess. These are the things we have to live with now that are invasive:
1. Thick bar at top with name/photo of contact taking up needless space.
2. Progress bar showing message sending status removed.
3. Compose message field is 50% smaller making it harder to tap, especially one-handed or while walking.
4. Typing a message like "congrats" or "happy birthday" launches balloons by default, no way to opt out.
5. When trying to copy a message to paste into another message, the nonsense bar pops up and it is too easy to accidentally tap a thumbs down or a ha-ha when all you wanted to do was copy the message.
6. When driving and using Bluetooth to read back messages, Siri refers to all the childish effects as read text such as "Sent with balloons Tom says I will meet you at the bar at five with slam effect"
7. The new answer-back stickers encourage more texts where not necessary, where I used to be able to type "see you at the bar at five" and receive a simple "K", now I get a thumbs up notification followed by another message.
8. See above regarding driving and these new answer-back stickers, how Siri reads back effects as text-to-speech, and how annoying that is in a moving vehicle.
9. When someone sends you a message with an effect, your lock screen notification doesn't show you a few lines of the message text, it instead says "Sent with balloons".
All of this for what? So Apple can compete with Snapchat for a 12 year old girl's attention? So Apple can launch an app store for emojis and rude GIF's?
It is absolutely awful. If iMessage weren't free and so ubiquitous I'd defect to another texting app in a heartbeat to avoid all this iCarly nonsense.
BJ
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It's really not. If you don't want to use this, apart from the congrats /happy birthday thing you mentioned, you need never be affected by it. You're really quite desperately reaching with these. At least one is fictional (2. Progress bar is removed) and 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 shall surely not affect you because as a non 12 year old girl snapchatter you won't be receiving these, right?
Perhaps a lawsuit against apple for the mental anguish some balloons will cause you on your birthday is in order.
I like the new iMessage features. Adds a bit more interest to texting again. I love the emoji prompts now too and the fact you can send drawings and gifs. Well done Apple 
As much as I like what Apple has done to iMessage (integration with Macs and other iOS devices, etc), I don't even use it since everybody around me, even those with iPhones, are already on one of the cross-platform messaging platforms, be it whatsapp, Line, Wechat, etc. The only time I use SMS is for 2 factor authentications, to check the balance of my prepaid plan, or to text uber driver (and you don't need fancy emojis for that), and send text to those not on smartphones yet (and the fancy emojis/features wouldn't be useful either). That's about it.
So it was quite strange for Apple to put so much focus on iMessage now. Sure, it's better than leaving the platform dry, but I just don't feel I will have the chance to even use the platform to its full potential.
So it was quite strange for Apple to put so much focus on iMessage now. Sure, it's better than leaving the platform dry, but I just don't feel I will have the chance to even use the platform to its full potential.
Another annoyance I discovered today:
If as you're composing a message you inadvertently turn the phone landscape you are brought to another silly page of useless nonsense, and it's not easy getting back to portrait.
Another day, another iMessage screw-up.
BJ
Just tried it out, seems easy enough to get to the regular keyboard in landscape mode and then quite easy as usual to switch between portrait and landscape.
If people are going to be concerned about buttons they don't need to to touch (one of which was already there), the horrifying threat of messages "12 year olds girls" might send them or *gasp* balloons on their birthday, I don't think anyone will persuade them that the added imessage features are anything but a terrible assault on their senses and a signifier that Apple is, as ever, doomed.
That would be the Drawing Keyboard? Lol
I think your real problem is your hi-powered colleagues (or perhaps your signature-listed "trophy wife"), act like 12yr old girls and send you this stuff? TBH if you are this easy to bait and I was a family member I'd send them too, must be hilarious...
That's not the point.
The point is that, again, Apple is invading the UI with childish features that are interfering with the purpose of sending simple, adult, professional text messages. Used to be an accidental swivel of the iPhone didn't bring up a completely different featureset and experience. Now I can accidentally dip the phone and suddenly I'm in this strange place with cursive writing and a box that says "Thinking of you". WTF.
BJ
So basically it's mostly the principle of it than anything else. Got it. (By the way, since switching to regular keyboard in landscape mode it seems to have stayed that way and comes up when I use landscape mode.)
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Apple is not doomed, I'm a huge fan, but they do blunder badly now and then and the new iMessage is one of those blunders. As an important EVP of a publicly traded company, I should not be subjected to the interference of childish features on my productivity tool. They distract and can lead to career-interfering mistakes.
And before you go there, the entire point of an iPhone as a universal product that works for any person of any financial level, age, ethnicity, location, etc. is it's configurability. iMessage should have been left alone in its current, straightforward state and then allowed to be customized by its users in any manner Apple liked. Creating an app for iMessage iMmaturity would have accomplished the same thing but allowed serious owners to opt-out and children and stay-home mom's to opt-in. Forcing features designed for one demographic over to other demographics is not right, I could give a dozen examples of where Apple doing something would enrage you the same way these silly toys in iMessage enrage me.
BJ
you block the phone number or email. I believe if its reg text it will still count towards your text limit if you have a limit
I'm thinking that an "important EVP of a publicly traded company" wastes far too much of his valuable time complaining on a message board instead of being productive.
So don't use it. Is Tim Cook holding a gun to your head and forcing you to use the extra girly features?
That iMessage has become bloated, confusing, error-prone, and directed at the wrong audience.
While some might feel that balloons and confetti are "fun", the way that Apple has forced this feature on us surely is not.
BJ
Not sure how "fun" relates to all of that, given the "seriousness" that is being associated with it all.