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You don’t “use” iMessage and you don’t have to keep “track of” anything. If for friend has an iPhone you will automatically send her an iMessage, if not you se
by ugh 15y ago
You don’t “use” iMessage and you don’t have to keep “track of” anything.
If for friend has an iPhone you will automatically send her an iMessage, if not you send a text. You won’t even notice. (The “Send” button changes color. That’s all.)
(Yeah, TechCrunch is exaggerating but iMessage is very clever.)
- bluelu 15y agoNice. So now all my private messages get routed (and logged) through an US company?
- ugh 15y agoSigh. If you like you can obviously deactivate iMessage. It’s not a problem.
- danilocampos 15y agoFor what it's worth, I appreciate your sanity.
- ceejayoz 15y agoAnd how are you imagining SMS messages work currently?
- bluelu 15y agoWell, I doubt that my SMS messages are routed through an external third party outside my country if I send a local SMS. I rather have my local government control who can access my information, then a US company.
- ceejayoz 15y agoIf that's your concern, then, Settings > Messages > iMessage to [OFF]. Hardly difficult.
- falling 15y agoI'm assuming you have the same concern about your emails, right? By the way iMessages are encrypted end-to-end (but I wouldn't expect you to believe or trust Apple on this).
- CamperBob 15y agoWhat in the world is a "local SMS?" It still goes through the cellular network, even when you're texting the person in the cube next door.
- seclorum 15y agoLocal cellular networks are governed by the local government. US companies are governed by the US government. Some governments > US governments on issues of privacy and propriety ..
- seanmccann 15y agoThe only problem is that most people will stick to the unlimited SMS plan. If they have a small data plan (500 MB for example), they'd be using their limited data.
- artursapek 15y agoThat's what I meant
- ugh 15y agoThe US is not the World. Also: I don’t think an iMessage is 1MB.
- antirez 15y agoiMessage offers more: you can send photos and videos, and you see the other end typing if I understand correctly, so you can use it like a chat.
- tvon 15y agoI'm curious what the typical texting plan and actual usage numbers are. I have the minimum (400, I think) and I never go over it, but I'm also past the whole social butterfly period in my life.
- seanmccann 15y agoI feel I should explain myself. I understand iMessage is much more than SMS and I love it so far. What I am saying is that is has been difficult to convince friends to use it. They still require a SMS plan since not everybody has an iPhone. Using iMessage will cut into their limited data, while using their SMS plan will be unlimited. Once more people have iPhones, we can ditch the SMS plan and use the "cheaper" data.
- artursapek 15y agoOh okay, I misunderstood its implementation. Still though, it will definitely not be any sort of SMS killer.
- jonknee 15y agoWhy not? All it would take is for Apple to standardize the spec and all of a sudden your BlackBerry/Android using friends are on board. My SMS usage is going to plummet with just iPhones on board, but add in the others and I'm down to reminders that are sent programmatically.
- jbondeson 15y agoThe iPhone has 4-5% market share of worldwide mobile phones. Even if you could get every smart phone manufacturer to convert that still would only get you to a ~20% market share. SMS isn't going anywhere soon.
- cj 15y agoThe fact that the iPhone has a 5% market share does not mean it represents 5% of all SMS messages sent. Smartphone users text message more frequently than your grandmother with an LG handset.
- jbondeson 15y agoI would argue that the frequency of SMS usage has very little to do with the type of phone you have, and much more to do with the demographic. There are plenty of iPhone users (such as my mother) who don't use SMS at all, and plenty of 14 year olds without smart phones (like my cousin) who text dozens of times a day. Either way, I've never seen a breakdown of SMS usage by either category.
- artursapek 15y agoI had peers in junior high/high school (before I even had a cell phone) who sent hundreds a day. One girl bragged about reaching something like 30,000 one month.