That would mean that others will see incoming iMessages from your email address rather than phone number from that point forward, and anyone who doesn't have yo

That would mean that others will see incoming iMessages from your email address rather than phone number from that point forward, and anyone who doesn't have your email address in their address book will not know who it's from. I often exchange iMessages with people whose contact entry for me likely consists of phone number & name, and if I'm lucky, a photo. [Edit] Just realized it also means that people who have both your iMessage-enabled email address and phone number in your contact info will be prompted on whether to send the iMessage to your phone number or email when composing a group message, and many will likely continue to select phone. Apple just needs to add the ability to disassociate your phone number with iMessage, and have clients check that status and update their local configuration when composing or sending iMessages. [/Edit]