Apple's iMessage down for many iOS and OS X users [u]
Apple's iMessage appears to be non-functional for many users across the U.S. and beyond, with both users iOS and OS X affected by the outage.
Update: Continuing independent testing shows that iMessages are now being automatically switched to SMS texts.
Update 2: Users are reporting that iMessage services have been restored some three hours after the outage was first noticed.
AppleInsider has received a number of reports noting that Apple's iMessage is not functioning, and has independently confirmed that the messaging service is down.
Both iOS and OS X clients are unable to send or receive messages sent through Apple's service, with users seeing a perpetual "Sending" prompt. Some members of the Apple Support Communities forum have reported that their iMessages are being translated into SMS text messages, however it appears that the operation is limited to a case-by-case basis.
It appears that users in North America and Europe are most affected by the outage. According to Apple's iCloud system status webpage, all services are online.
Update: Continuing independent testing shows that iMessages are now being automatically switched to SMS texts.
Update 2: Users are reporting that iMessage services have been restored some three hours after the outage was first noticed.
AppleInsider has received a number of reports noting that Apple's iMessage is not functioning, and has independently confirmed that the messaging service is down.
Both iOS and OS X clients are unable to send or receive messages sent through Apple's service, with users seeing a perpetual "Sending" prompt. Some members of the Apple Support Communities forum have reported that their iMessages are being translated into SMS text messages, however it appears that the operation is limited to a case-by-case basis.
It appears that users in North America and Europe are most affected by the outage. According to Apple's iCloud system status webpage, all services are online.
Comments
Hope:
Okay Jacob. I was able to confirm there is an outage with the iMessage service.
Hope:
Our engineers are working diligently to correct this issue. I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused.
Hope:
As of now I do not have an eta as to when the service will be back up and working. Typically this should not last no more than 24 hours.
Look at unlimited SMS plan...
...move on.
All the messages from my wife regarding chores to do on my day off, seem to be getting through fine via SMS, unfortunately.
If one uses the desktop iMessage app, how would one know that the service is actually down and not simply behaving pretty much as poorly as it ALWAYS does, even under normal circumstances?
Quote:
Originally Posted by sapporobabyrtrns
It even happens with text messages. The servers go down... A non-issue...
Maybe in Finland. I have never, ever experienced an SMS system failure. (Knock wood!)
Saying that, I think that at the time of the outage I would have been asleep (in the UK)
Quote:
Originally Posted by sapporobabyrtrns
It even happens with text messages. The servers go down... A non-issue...
That shouldn't happen. I had a problem with SMS for half a day in 10 years. And they had to do a lot of apologies for that.
Originally Posted by ClemyNX
That shouldn't happen. I had a problem with SMS for half a day in 10 years. And they had to do a lot of apologies for that.
People shouldn't die, either. But it happens infrequently enough that we generally ignore it. No system is perfect.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 6ryph3n
FaceTime was down too. Got my mom a new iPhone and first time she tries out FT the servers are down. Servers go down though, not that big a deal. What I do find annoying is that if the message recipient has their phone off or is out of service it's impossible to send an iMessage instead of SMS. On a pay-per-text plan, I'd rather just send/receive a late iMessage than have to keep paying for every text.
I think if you turn off the "send as SMS" option your iMessages sent to iOS users with phones off/outside service area will simply sit on the server until they reconnect. They won't say "delivered" until they go through, at least that's my experience.
This setting, of course, doesn't impact sending SMS to non-iOS users, those continue on regardless of your iMessage settings.
I tried that, but still receive SMS when I'm out of service. It's not as big a deal now that I switched to a Verizon Share Everything plan with unlimited text, but on my old plan it was annoying. I was frequently out of service because of where I worked and kept having to pay for texts my friends would send.
I never even touch iMessage. I'm not sure why anyone would. The idea is excellent, but it needs to be an open system so it'll work with Google Voice and other IM/texting options. As a closed system, it does me no good. Even though most of my friends have Macs and iPhones too, we text each other since these days we all have unlimited texting.
Originally Posted by 2oh1
The idea is excellent, but it needs to be an open system so it'll work with Google Voice and other IM/texting options. As a closed system, it does me no good.
Just like no one ever used BBM.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2oh1
I never even touch iMessage. I'm not sure why anyone would. The idea is excellent, but it needs to be an open system so it'll work with Google Voice and other IM/texting options. As a closed system, it does me no good. Even though most of my friends have Macs and iPhones too, we text each other since these days we all have unlimited texting.
Google Voice, as a proprietary system is just as closed.
Furthermore unlike Google Voice, iMessage is available globally for Macs and iOS devices.
I've found WhatsApp Messenger to be the best messaging system between all the different smartphones; you can message any smartphone that has the app whether it's iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Nokia s40 or Symbian.
+1
Whatsapp FTW