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pbrooks

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 15, 2008
168
11
First, let me state that I'm not criticizing Apple or iMessage, so please refrain from jumping down my throat. I'm simply asking for the perspective of others.

I've thought about this a lot, and I genuinely cannot see why it's useful to have all messages sync to all devices. I have an iMac, MacBook Pro, iPad, and iPhone, and I have used Messages since the Lion beta. I find it utterly annoying to have all my devices pinging constantly. Moreover, if I'm done with a conversation on one device, I certainly do not need to revisit it on my other machines. Even after deleting/clearing a chat transcript (through the Messages app and by going into the Messages folder in the Library), there it is sitting on my phone or iPad.

I guess I am old school in believing that my Mac should be my Mac and and my phone should be a messaging device. It's worked fine for years.

Could someone educate me... why do you want messages syncing everywhere? Maybe describing a concrete scenario where this would be useful might help my old brain to understand.

BTW... I'm trying to understand the value of a feature, so simply telling me to disable message syncing is not a valid response. Thanks.
 

bushido

Suspended
Mar 26, 2008
8,070
2,755
Germany
i dont get the point either, i own an mac, an ipad and 2 iphones and i set up each as their own. i just dont get the point of why i would want convos that i currently have on my mac to also pop up on my iPad and iPhones. thats hella annoying; they would never shut up beeping or blinking

let's say i'm on the run and only carry my iPhone. i'll iMessage people from my iPhone and dont need all those "missed" notifications to be stored on my iPad when i'm not even using it. and if i'm at uni iMessaging from my Mac, i'll obvs response on my Mac, why do i need it to also pop up on my iPhone

what am i missing?
 

pdjudd

macrumors 601
Jun 19, 2007
4,037
65
Plymouth, MN
Could someone educate me... why do you want messages syncing everywhere? Maybe describing a concrete scenario where this would be useful might help my old brain to understand.

The most obvious case is that people do communicate using the computer but are not on there all the time - similar to email, there are times when I am not at one device and I need to respond to somebody and require some context as to what I was talking about. Lust like I get email on multiple devices, the same can be said about other methods of communication.

I would prefer email, but the trouble is, SMS/iMessage is so darn immediate, that people want to use it more than email. And I can tell you that when I am at my desk, pulling out or locating my phone can be a pain. It is much easier to reply using the device that is most convenient to use at the time. If I am at my desk I want to use whats on my desk. If I am not, I want to use my phone. Having everything everywhere helps with convenience and I don't have to go "Oh what did I tell Bob an hour ago - It's on that message that is on my computer except I am nowhere near there"
 

Feed Me

macrumors 6502a
Jan 7, 2012
831
6
Location Location
I'd rather messages synced as they do at the moment rather than having no syncing at all.

Me, I love iMessage.

I hate the current implementation of syncing, and I hate the reliability issues with it. It needs a revamp.
 

bushido

Suspended
Mar 26, 2008
8,070
2,755
Germany
The most obvious case is that people do communicate using the computer but are not on there all the time - similar to email, there are times when I am not at one device and I need to respond to somebody and require some context as to what I was talking about. Lust like I get email on multiple devices, the same can be said about other methods of communication.

I would prefer email, but the trouble is, SMS/iMessage is so darn immediate, that people want to use it more than email. And I can tell you that when I am at my desk, pulling out or locating my phone can be a pain. It is much easier to reply using the device that is most convenient to use at the time. If I am at my desk I want to use whats on my desk. If I am not, I want to use my phone. Having everything everywhere helps with convenience and I don't have to go "Oh what did I tell Bob an hour ago - It's on that message that is on my computer except I am nowhere near there"

thats what different apple IDs is good for tho

people know to reach me on my iPhone by #
on my iPad by iCloud
and on my Mac by gmail

i would love synching if iMessage would somehow recognize when i'm currently using one particularly device so the other's would shut up notifying me while i'm not using them.

my desk was literally shacking from all the buzzing. like I've used iMessage on my mac and at the same time my iPhones and iPad would light up and buzz one after another even tho its the same damn thing which i already read on my Mac
 

Small White Car

macrumors G4
Aug 29, 2006
10,972
1,468
Washington DC
Don't you have your e-mail set up on all the devices? Is that a problem for you? Most people seem to like e-mail everywhere, so why should iMessages be any different?

It sounds like your main problem is that you have all your devices making a noise when you get a message. So don't set it up that way. I have my phone ding me (because it's guaranteed to be on me) and the other devices merely record the message but don't tell me about it. They still sync, they just don't notify.

That way I can pick up any device and reply to messages from it. Just like with e-mail.
 

pbrooks

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 15, 2008
168
11
Don't you have your e-mail set up on all the devices? Is that a problem for you? Most people seem to like e-mail everywhere, so why should iMessages be any different?

It sounds like your main problem is that you have all your devices making a noise when you get a message. So don't set it up that way. I have my phone ding me (because it's guaranteed to be on me) and the other devices merely record the message but don't tell me about it. They still sync, they just don't notify.

That way I can pick up any device and reply to messages from it. Just like with e-mail.

The difference being that with email, once I have read/deleted/filed/ an email on any of my devices, it is dealt with. Whatever I have done to an email is reflected on all my other devices. With Messages, I have a growing list of chat transcripts on each device. Delete it off my iMac... there it is on my iPhone. But that's not all! It's still on my iPad. My MBP, which sits behind a firewall all day at work, might not get those messages for days, when I happen to turn it on on my home network, when they'll pop up again.

The other difference is email works on a global standard. I know that technically this is not true, but from an end user perspective, everyone everywhere can send/receive email from their devices/computers. With Messages, this is not true. It's a closed ecosystem so your messages will sync everywhere, except the ones from those friends/colleagues who use other OSs. You know... the "green people." Another reason I don't want my messages syncing everywhere, because many of them won't.
 
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