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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 a

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 12y 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 12y 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 12y 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 12y ago
  That would mean that Apple have to pay for these SMS messages, which they probably don't want to do.
  - EwanToo 12y 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 12y ago
> How do you propose they fix it? Making it possible to deregister by logging into your Apple Account over the web would deal with 100% of the problem, which is people not being aware of the issue before switching off of iOS.
- agos 12y ago
  AFAIK this is already possibile Edit: someone on this thread has confirmed
  - 2muchcoffeeman 12y ago
    It's not obvious though. They give you a unified login - Apple ID - but all the services are all over the place. Other than iCloud, I can't tell you what URL to go to, to manage your ID, unregister devices etc. At least give us a portal with links to all the services.
Zhenya 12y ago
Good implementations would not have these kind of issues. This is a technical afterthought to them since you cant be part of their Eco system without their hardware, apparently you can go screw yourself.
nitrogen 12y ago
How do you propose they fix it? They could release an iMessage client for Android and PC.
dirkgently 12y ago
> How do you propose they fix it? It's their technology. Why should I provide the fix of a system that's not built by me, and have no control over it? It's like saying, user x can't use a website, so he/sh should find out that there is a javascript error due to browser compatibility, and then the USER has to propose a solution with the fix in the javascript to the website owner.

kennywinker 12y 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 12y 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 12y 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 12y ago
That would mean that Apple have to pay for these SMS messages, which they probably don't want to do.
- EwanToo 12y 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 12y ago

> How do you propose they fix it? Making it possible to deregister by logging into your Apple Account over the web would deal with 100% of the problem, which is people not being aware of the issue before switching off of iOS.

agos 12y ago
AFAIK this is already possibile Edit: someone on this thread has confirmed
- 2muchcoffeeman 12y ago
  It's not obvious though. They give you a unified login - Apple ID - but all the services are all over the place. Other than iCloud, I can't tell you what URL to go to, to manage your ID, unregister devices etc. At least give us a portal with links to all the services.

Zhenya 12y ago

Good implementations would not have these kind of issues. This is a technical afterthought to them since you cant be part of their Eco system without their hardware, apparently you can go screw yourself.

nitrogen 12y ago

How do you propose they fix it? They could release an iMessage client for Android and PC.

dirkgently 12y ago

> How do you propose they fix it? It's their technology. Why should I provide the fix of a system that's not built by me, and have no control over it? It's like saying, user x can't use a website, so he/sh should find out that there is a javascript error due to browser compatibility, and then the USER has to propose a solution with the fix in the javascript to the website owner.