iMessage Problem

[PiedPiper]

My partner and I were both away in London at the weekend during which time we sent each other a few text messages, none of which arrived. On investigation I noticed that iMessage, which I normally keep disabled, was enabled on both phones and I can only presume that this was enabled by the iOS9 installation. The result was that none of the messages arrived, even when we were both using the same hotel wifi later on.

This was easily cured by turning off iMessage, simple, but what am I missing here? Can anyone shed some light on what is going on, or not going on to be precise? In there days of unlimited text message contracts what is the point of iMessage?

[Anonymous]

---

@PiedPiper wrote:

In these days of unlimited text message contracts what is the point of iMessage?

---

One advantage of iMessage is it that you can save money on text charges that are not covered by your inclusive allowance, such as picture messages, or to numbers outside of the UK. 

Mind you, there are other Apps that achieve the same, with WhatsApp probably being the most popular. 

[MI5]

iMessage was all part of Apple's plan for World domination, but only effective if everyone has an iPhone

[Cleoriff]

---

@MI5 wrote:
iMessage was all part of Apple's plan for World domination, but only effective if everyone has an iPhone

---

[Anonymous]

---

@MI5 wrote:
iMessage was all part of Apple's plan for World domination, but only effective if everyone has an iPhone

---

Having used or should I say suffered iMessage for a long time, I'm now of the opinion that WhatsApp is a more reliable option.  

[MI5]

Yep, and available to almost anyone....

[Anonymous]

---

@PiedPiper wrote:

My partner and I were both away in London at the weekend during which time we sent each other a few text messages, none of which arrived. On investigation I noticed that iMessage, which I normally keep disabled, was enabled on both phones and I can only presume that this was enabled by the iOS9 installation. The result was that none of the messages arrived, even when we were both using the same hotel wifi later on.

This was easily cured by turning off iMessage, simple, but what am I missing here? Can anyone shed some light on what is going on, or not going on to be precise? In there days of unlimited text message contracts what is the point of iMessage?

---

Myself and my partner both use iMessage with iOS 9 and haven't seen any isssues, but we are on EE, so perhaps it was a network issue or an issue with the iMessage service. I agree, the iMessage must have been re-enabled during the iOS 9 update or perhaps a restore of a backup. I know when we were on O2, there used to be quite often times where our iMessages were sent as text messages, but we haven't seen this issue since we both moved to EE, all our iMessages are sent as iMessages everytime.

These are the advantages of using iMessage but obviously everyone you are texting needs to have an iPhone/iPad to take advantage of the iMessage service, but as all of my friends, family have iPhone's, these are the advantages of the iMessage service:

1: You will be able to see when your iMessage has been delivered (something you can't do with a standard text message). Also, if you both have this option switched on, you can see when the person has read the iMessage (again, something you can't do with a standard text message). You can also see when the person is typing a reply back. Yes you can do this with a third party app (such as WhatsApp), but some people prefer to not install a thrid party app and also, all the people you are texting needs to have the third party app installed too.

2: You can insert a photo, video, into an iMessage and you are able to send this and not incur a MMS message charge (which is around 40p per MMS message) which is something you would get charged if you inserted a photo, video into a standard text message. For want of a better word, the iMessage service bypasses the mobile network's text/MMS message service.

3: If you are not on an unlimited text tariff. Sending an iMessage would not deduct from the text allowance you had (essentially it bypasses the network's text message service).

[PiedPiper]

Interesting post Fatboy - thanks very much. I wonder if it was an O2 problem? As it happens I'm thinking of changing to EE which by all accounts is the one to go for round here (North Suffolk).

Mind you I might still disable iMessage because I don't think I need or want all the extra tricks that it offers. All I want is a simple reliable messaging service that is more of less guaranteed to work every time assuming there is even a tiny bit of signal. SMS seems to give me that, but if I enable iMessage then I can't be sure what might happen. That's just not good enough for me. But I've still got Messenger and WhatsApp if I need them.

[jonsie]

@PiedPiper changing network will solve all your problems my friend 😉

[Anonymous]

---

@PiedPiper wrote:

Interesting post Fatboy - thanks very much. I wonder if it was an O2 problem? As it happens I'm thinking of changing to EE which by all accounts is the one to go for round here (North Suffolk).

Mind you I might still disable iMessage because I don't think I need or want all the extra tricks that it offers. All I want is a simple reliable messaging service that is more of less guaranteed to work every time assuming there is even a tiny bit of signal. SMS seems to give me that, but if I enable iMessage then I can't be sure what might happen. That's just not good enough for me. But I've still got Messenger and WhatsApp if I need them.

---

Your welcome PiedPiper 

If you are changing networks, I would always advise getting a pay & go sim for that network to see how you find them for coverage, data coverage (3G, 4G) and data speeds. Try them for a couple of weeks and if they are good, you shouldn't have any worry about committing to something more longterm if you wanted to.

Also, you would need to make sure your iPhone was unlocked. If its locked to O2, you will need to get it unlocked. I think you need to have had the iPhone for 6 months before they will unlock and its usually free for pay monthly customer or around £15 for pay & go customers. There's a bit more info on this in this link.

http://www.o2.co.uk/help/phones-and-devices/unlocking-your-iphone-and-using-it-on-another-network

Yeah iMessage (and I think WhatsApp) need at least 3G to work, whereas sending as a standard SMS (i.e. having iMessage switched off) would send the text even if you only had a GPRS connection, so this would probably be the best for what you want.

In my area, O2 were terrible (for the last 12 months) and their data speeds/data reliability, 3G coverage were poor. I find now that I've moved to EE, anything that uses data (such as iMessage), works far more reliably and faster, even when only getting 3G (a large area around where I live has 4G with EE). If EE work as good in your area as they do in mine, then I think you will be pleased.

[MI5]

I can't say for iMessage but Whatsapp works OK over GPRS but obviously only for text. If pics or videos are included that may take a long time or not download at all.