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It's encouraging that they actually have the capability to fix the issue, but you really shouldn't have to call tech support to regain control of your phone num

It's encouraging that they actually have the capability to fix the issue, but you really shouldn't have to call tech support to regain control of your phone number. When you sign up for iMessages they don't say "We take over your phone number and route all texts from iphones to it and you'll have to call tech support to make us stop!"

jc4p 13y ago
Oh of course, it's insanely annoying. It's not even something that crossed my mind since before transitioning to my iPhone I used to carry multiple phones on me and just switch SIMs around (I'm a mobile dev, not a drug dealer, I promise) I'm just saying that it's not hopeless, Apple hasn't done anything about it in years and from the blog it seems like the writer thinks they'll just never get text messages from iPhone users again, which is false. From what I understand, it's less of a deliberate "HAHA SCREW YOU" and more of a caching issue on their iMessage registration side. The removal of my number took around 24 hours to propagate to their services (e.g. if a person who didn't have a thread with me put in my number, it would show green not blue) and I had to have some friends delete our chat history since my iMessage-ness was cached on their phone. I think Apple only checks iMessage registration in pull format, e.g. when someone toggles iMessage on/off on their phone, rather than constantly checking it through some "does this phone have service" background test.
- dirkgently 13y ago
  If it's not deliberate, then it's just incompetency.
superuser2 13y ago
How do you propose they fix it? Integrating with the infrastructure of every carrier to detect when a not-iPhone is activated on a line previously occupied by an iPhone is probably expensive and invasive to carriers. Also you don't have to call tech support. You can deregister iMessage from Settings (by turning it off) before you activate a new phone.
- kennywinker 13y ago
  The issue is a) communicating that to users. and b) Even if you know that, if your phone breaks and you revert to an older phone or a cheap android to tide you over... you didn't get a chance to sign out. I'd say the problem is they're keeping you signed in for too long. If my phone doesn't check in for 24 hours, shouldn't it un-register me at least until I next check in?
  - xarball 13y ago
    It sounds like they're intentionally doing this, to create a problem for people migrating away from their service. Apple: Broken by design, broken at inception.
- teraflop 13y ago
  iMessages go through Apple's servers, right? Then if all messages addressed to a particular phone suddenly stop being delivered, surely they can detect that. If a phone fails to check in for some period of time, there's a pretty good chance that the user has switched to a different device, and the messages should be retransmitted as SMS. Even if the timeout is on the order of days, that would still be better than having your messages swallowed by the void forever. For bonus points, take care of false positives in this system by storing enough metadata in iMessage to deduplicate the iMessage and SMS copies.
  - runeb 13y ago
    That would mean that Apple have to pay for these SMS messages, which they probably don't want to do.
    - EwanToo 13y ago
      I don't think it does? The iMessage servers would simply reply to the sender device, saying "Number not active in iMessage", and give the sender a prompt to send by SMS.
- dragonwriter 13y ago
eee777 13y ago
They do not have the ability to fix this. My wife's data plan is capped at 500MB and when it runs out iMessage does not work. She turned off iMessageing and days later when she still reported that she wasn't getting texts. The Apple tech said that she should tell people not to reply to a thread and to start a new one. She uses her phone for her business and she can't preemptively blast text over 150 contacts not to reply to an active thread, but to start a new one. Her iPhone contacts don't even understand the issue. Now she has to upgrade to an unlimited plan or risk missing messages. Apple has broken text messaging for anyone who uses an iPhone.
- fanf2 13y ago
  I have trouble sending texts from my iPhone to my wife after she switched from an iPhone to an Android. In my experience deleting old conversations and starting new ones didn't work. What does work is double-tapping a message after it has been sent, which gives you the option to send via SMS.
  - Flenser 13y ago
    Useful to know! Double-tapping would be completely non-intuitive on a phone, how did you discover that?
    - kennywinker 13y ago
      double-tapping has the same effect as a long-press in this case. It brings up the contextual menu.

jc4p 13y ago

Oh of course, it's insanely annoying. It's not even something that crossed my mind since before transitioning to my iPhone I used to carry multiple phones on me and just switch SIMs around (I'm a mobile dev, not a drug dealer, I promise) I'm just saying that it's not hopeless, Apple hasn't done anything about it in years and from the blog it seems like the writer thinks they'll just never get text messages from iPhone users again, which is false. From what I understand, it's less of a deliberate "HAHA SCREW YOU" and more of a caching issue on their iMessage registration side. The removal of my number took around 24 hours to propagate to their services (e.g. if a person who didn't have a thread with me put in my number, it would show green not blue) and I had to have some friends delete our chat history since my iMessage-ness was cached on their phone. I think Apple only checks iMessage registration in pull format, e.g. when someone toggles iMessage on/off on their phone, rather than constantly checking it through some "does this phone have service" background test.

dirkgently 13y ago
If it's not deliberate, then it's just incompetency.

superuser2 13y ago

How do you propose they fix it? Integrating with the infrastructure of every carrier to detect when a not-iPhone is activated on a line previously occupied by an iPhone is probably expensive and invasive to carriers. Also you don't have to call tech support. You can deregister iMessage from Settings (by turning it off) before you activate a new phone.

kennywinker 13y ago
The issue is a) communicating that to users. and b) Even if you know that, if your phone breaks and you revert to an older phone or a cheap android to tide you over... you didn't get a chance to sign out. I'd say the problem is they're keeping you signed in for too long. If my phone doesn't check in for 24 hours, shouldn't it un-register me at least until I next check in?
- xarball 13y ago
  It sounds like they're intentionally doing this, to create a problem for people migrating away from their service. Apple: Broken by design, broken at inception.
teraflop 13y ago
iMessages go through Apple's servers, right? Then if all messages addressed to a particular phone suddenly stop being delivered, surely they can detect that. If a phone fails to check in for some period of time, there's a pretty good chance that the user has switched to a different device, and the messages should be retransmitted as SMS. Even if the timeout is on the order of days, that would still be better than having your messages swallowed by the void forever. For bonus points, take care of false positives in this system by storing enough metadata in iMessage to deduplicate the iMessage and SMS copies.
- runeb 13y ago
  That would mean that Apple have to pay for these SMS messages, which they probably don't want to do.
  - EwanToo 13y ago
    I don't think it does? The iMessage servers would simply reply to the sender device, saying "Number not active in iMessage", and give the sender a prompt to send by SMS.
dragonwriter 13y ago

eee777 13y ago

They do not have the ability to fix this. My wife's data plan is capped at 500MB and when it runs out iMessage does not work. She turned off iMessageing and days later when she still reported that she wasn't getting texts. The Apple tech said that she should tell people not to reply to a thread and to start a new one. She uses her phone for her business and she can't preemptively blast text over 150 contacts not to reply to an active thread, but to start a new one. Her iPhone contacts don't even understand the issue. Now she has to upgrade to an unlimited plan or risk missing messages. Apple has broken text messaging for anyone who uses an iPhone.

fanf2 13y ago
I have trouble sending texts from my iPhone to my wife after she switched from an iPhone to an Android. In my experience deleting old conversations and starting new ones didn't work. What does work is double-tapping a message after it has been sent, which gives you the option to send via SMS.
- Flenser 13y ago
  Useful to know! Double-tapping would be completely non-intuitive on a phone, how did you discover that?
  - kennywinker 13y ago
    double-tapping has the same effect as a long-press in this case. It brings up the contextual menu.