iMessage will only work if you are trying to text to another iOS device. What if the other device does not have iOS (most do not have iOS)? What if you don't know if the other side has iOS? Wireless Carriers offer a ubiquitous texting service...which is easy to use, always on, and works with any texting device.
Apple is trying to lock in people to their architecture.....just like Google is. This is starting to get dangerous.
RIM started it by locking their customers in to their BBM messaging system. It's been dangerous for many years.
Actually if I remember my GSM specs correctly, SMS isn't treated as data per say, it's sent on a bearer channel, so really it costs the carriers nothing,
Correct. It's also why the character limit exists - because that's all this signaling packet is designed to contain. Outside the US it's free and caught on much more quickly since it could replace a phone call in many cases. Interesting read about that.
I despise the carriers for this and consider it almost criminal that they charge for it but, boy, what a great marketing ploy to get us to pay for something that is, essentially, riding tower/phone communications that are happening anyway. I like that Sprint bundles SMS into their plans. I know I'm paying for it but I can pretend that I don't have to since there's no way to choose a text package.
Back on topic - I can only see it adding to confusion if someone has to use two separate text messaging apps and remember who has an iOS device and who doesn't. Even if they were to develop an Android app (really?!) it still excludes too many people.
I see it as a good thing for the customers, AT&T has been charging $30 every month for unlimited data, but not including text plans. Now we the customers have a slight edge, like when Netflix came out and blockbuster video was still charging late fees for video return rentals. Pretty quick blockbuster couldn't hold late fees over customers anymore
As soon as I saw them messaging between iPad and iPhone, i wondered how this would work. Would the iPhone have two separate messaging apps, one called iMessaging for chatting between iOS users and another called Messages for everyone else? Would messages from your iPad be free but messages from your iPhone still count toward your texting plan? Now it sounds as though neither is true, and that there is a single messaging app that happens to send messages to iOS devices outside the carrier's messaging plan. But assuming a person doesnt know who in their address book does and doesn't have an iPhone, how will the user know which messages are costing them and which are free? Will they be visually marked somehow? What if my friend has an iPad and an android phone; will iMessaging somehow notify me which he's texting me from so that I can know if its counting against my cellular texting plan or not? It all seems very confusing.
I dont have access to the developer preview, so I cannot say with certainty, but thinking like Apple would think... i'd say it'll go like this. SMS+imessage is rolled into one app called iMessage. When you launch a new text, it will ask you for the users name, and if you have both a phone number and an apple ID for them, it'll prompt you to start a new message via SMS or iMessage (similar to how if you want to facetime someone and you press facetime from within the contact name you get the option to facetime their cell number or an email address). When you select the phone number it will SMS them in the traditional way, still using your text message plan. If you select iMessage it'll route via 3G or WiFi thru apples servers via their apple ID and back to their device. You'll get better pictures/video quality than the crappy videos your MMS now, plus the ability to see when they're typing and if they've read/received it. The only indication of the difference between the services will be the slightly grayed out "iMessage" or probably "SMS" text that in the type field just before you go to type... (this i noticed from one of the screen caps from the keynote had iMessage in the type field before he began typing in the message box). That, and the fact that if you think you're iMessaging someone and you don't see the typing indicator before they type or the read/received receipts... then you're probably SMSing them.
It'll probably be just as, or slightly less confusing than using the similar service on Blackberry... and thats not at all complicated.
It *could* be similarly confusing as it is now (but hopefully not) when you click "text message" from within a user's contact card and it asks you if you want to text their email address or cell number. If you choose email address, of if you get texts from the same user with different cell phones, but you've already had a chat going with that user on another number, they will just show up as two separate entries in your chat list with no immediate visual indication of which point of contact your messaging with "John Doe". Hopefully with iOS 5 they can at least indicate what form of service you're using next to the recipient's name in the messaging list. Or color them differently.
Back on topic - I can only see it adding to confusion if someone has to use two separate text messaging apps and remember who has an iOS device and who doesn't. Even if they were to develop an Android app (really?!) it still excludes too many people.
Why does someone have to remember it? Let the iphone do that. Doesn't it already? There is the option to list an iphone number in the contacts already.
It's just one more thing the carriers will resist until they realize the game is up and find other methods of squeezing their customers. The carries will ALWAYS find away to make $$$. iMessage just forces them to get more 'creative'...
Apple needs to release an Android client for this. Too many people I know do not have iPhones.
Sucks to be them! Funny, BlackBerry Messenger is a BB only feature and touted as a BB advantage - why shouldn't this be the same? If you have an android device I guess you fall back to the more universal SMS (just don't try to text me as I'm re-blocking it now!)
It seems pretty hard to turn off texting completely. There was a time when I wanted to do that, but never figured out how to do so.
Call customer service and demand to have it removed from your account. I dunno about anyone else, but AT&T did it for me until I bought the iPhone 4 and had to renew my contract. By then I had everyone in my circle trained to not bother to try to text me so I left it - the few times I have texted the $.20 charge wasn't bothersome. But with this, I'm calling up AT&T tomorrow and re-blocking it on my account!
Built into the OS, present on every phone, works the same way for everyone.
Apps like Textie will still exist - partially for the reasons you cite. But for non-power users that have just a handful of apps on their phone, this is huge!
This is clearly a direct attack on BlackBerry. It'll reduce the use of SMS by some users too and that's a good thing because carriers have been ripping us off since SMS was invented.
The carriers might have been surprised by iMessage but they got some really good news today. The availability of over the air syncing and updates means that the average user will be using a lot more data than they do today. Locking people into higher tier data plans means more guaranteed income every month.
As soon as I saw them messaging between iPad and iPhone, i wondered how this would work. Would the iPhone have two separate messaging apps, one called iMessaging for chatting between iOS users and another called Messages for everyone else? Would messages from your iPad be free but messages from your iPhone still count toward your texting plan? Now it sounds as though neither is true, and that there is a single messaging app that happens to send messages to iOS devices outside the carrier's messaging plan. But assuming a person doesnt know who in their address book does and doesn't have an iPhone, how will the user know which messages are costing them and which are free? Will they be visually marked somehow? What if my friend has an iPad and an android phone; will iMessaging somehow notify me which he's texting me from so that I can know if its counting against my cellular texting plan or not? It all seems very confusing.
It seems confusing because it hasn't been released yet. The information will come, be patient
Yes, it is all in one app.
In response to how do you know which messages are free and which ones cost, the answer is: whether or not they're free or not, it'll still be less than what you're currently using.
Apple is releasing this in order to provide text for non phone devices. It is a convenient by product that we will get free texts.
Finally, address book as an option to assign the name "iPhone" instead of "mobile" or "home". After using that a couple times I've learned who has an iPhone and who doesn't
Not a direct solution, but there's enough there to mitigate most of your concerns.
Comments
iMessage will only work if you are trying to text to another iOS device. What if the other device does not have iOS (most do not have iOS)? What if you don't know if the other side has iOS? Wireless Carriers offer a ubiquitous texting service...which is easy to use, always on, and works with any texting device.
Apple is trying to lock in people to their architecture.....just like Google is. This is starting to get dangerous.
RIM started it by locking their customers in to their BBM messaging system. It's been dangerous for many years.
Actually if I remember my GSM specs correctly, SMS isn't treated as data per say, it's sent on a bearer channel, so really it costs the carriers nothing,
Correct. It's also why the character limit exists - because that's all this signaling packet is designed to contain. Outside the US it's free and caught on much more quickly since it could replace a phone call in many cases. Interesting read about that.
I despise the carriers for this and consider it almost criminal that they charge for it but, boy, what a great marketing ploy to get us to pay for something that is, essentially, riding tower/phone communications that are happening anyway. I like that Sprint bundles SMS into their plans. I know I'm paying for it but I can pretend that I don't have to since there's no way to choose a text package.
Back on topic - I can only see it adding to confusion if someone has to use two separate text messaging apps and remember who has an iOS device and who doesn't. Even if they were to develop an Android app (really?!) it still excludes too many people.
I see it as a good thing for the customers, AT&T has been charging $30 every month for unlimited data, but not including text plans. Now we the customers have a slight edge, like when Netflix came out and blockbuster video was still charging late fees for video return rentals. Pretty quick blockbuster couldn't hold late fees over customers anymore
As soon as I saw them messaging between iPad and iPhone, i wondered how this would work. Would the iPhone have two separate messaging apps, one called iMessaging for chatting between iOS users and another called Messages for everyone else? Would messages from your iPad be free but messages from your iPhone still count toward your texting plan? Now it sounds as though neither is true, and that there is a single messaging app that happens to send messages to iOS devices outside the carrier's messaging plan. But assuming a person doesnt know who in their address book does and doesn't have an iPhone, how will the user know which messages are costing them and which are free? Will they be visually marked somehow? What if my friend has an iPad and an android phone; will iMessaging somehow notify me which he's texting me from so that I can know if its counting against my cellular texting plan or not? It all seems very confusing.
I dont have access to the developer preview, so I cannot say with certainty, but thinking like Apple would think... i'd say it'll go like this. SMS+imessage is rolled into one app called iMessage. When you launch a new text, it will ask you for the users name, and if you have both a phone number and an apple ID for them, it'll prompt you to start a new message via SMS or iMessage (similar to how if you want to facetime someone and you press facetime from within the contact name you get the option to facetime their cell number or an email address). When you select the phone number it will SMS them in the traditional way, still using your text message plan. If you select iMessage it'll route via 3G or WiFi thru apples servers via their apple ID and back to their device. You'll get better pictures/video quality than the crappy videos your MMS now, plus the ability to see when they're typing and if they've read/received it. The only indication of the difference between the services will be the slightly grayed out "iMessage" or probably "SMS" text that in the type field just before you go to type... (this i noticed from one of the screen caps from the keynote had iMessage in the type field before he began typing in the message box). That, and the fact that if you think you're iMessaging someone and you don't see the typing indicator before they type or the read/received receipts... then you're probably SMSing them.
It'll probably be just as, or slightly less confusing than using the similar service on Blackberry... and thats not at all complicated.
It *could* be similarly confusing as it is now (but hopefully not) when you click "text message" from within a user's contact card and it asks you if you want to text their email address or cell number. If you choose email address, of if you get texts from the same user with different cell phones, but you've already had a chat going with that user on another number, they will just show up as two separate entries in your chat list with no immediate visual indication of which point of contact your messaging with "John Doe". Hopefully with iOS 5 they can at least indicate what form of service you're using next to the recipient's name in the messaging list. Or color them differently.
We'll see
Back on topic - I can only see it adding to confusion if someone has to use two separate text messaging apps and remember who has an iOS device and who doesn't. Even if they were to develop an Android app (really?!) it still excludes too many people.
Why does someone have to remember it? Let the iphone do that. Doesn't it already? There is the option to list an iphone number in the contacts already.
I am an iPhone user with iPhone-using family and friends. But not ALL of them use iPhones.....
Unless Apple makes it an open standard that other phones could use. Now that would be sweet.
At $30 per month, I'd be awfully tempted to buy the youngest kid of mine an iPhone just to eliminate the carrier's recurring charges.
iMessage has drawn comparisons to Research in Motion's proprietary BlackBerry Messaging service. Though BBM initially served as a draw to the platform
Final nail in RIMs coffin...
I would bet Face will be more prominently mentioned ? hopefully with open sourcing ? in the September event.
I wold imagine open API's. OpenSource? Not very likely.
How is this different from something like Textie? Am I missing something here? Textie has the extra ability to send free texts to non-iPhones.
Ok well this is for iPhones only. If you want to text to someone else you have Textie as an alternative.
Apple needs to release an Android client for this. Too many people I know do not have iPhones.
Sucks to be them! Funny, BlackBerry Messenger is a BB only feature and touted as a BB advantage - why shouldn't this be the same? If you have an android device I guess you fall back to the more universal SMS (just don't try to text me as I'm re-blocking it now!)
It seems pretty hard to turn off texting completely. There was a time when I wanted to do that, but never figured out how to do so.
Call customer service and demand to have it removed from your account. I dunno about anyone else, but AT&T did it for me until I bought the iPhone 4 and had to renew my contract. By then I had everyone in my circle trained to not bother to try to text me so I left it - the few times I have texted the $.20 charge wasn't bothersome. But with this, I'm calling up AT&T tomorrow and re-blocking it on my account!
How is this different from something like Textie?
Built into the OS, present on every phone, works the same way for everyone.
Apps like Textie will still exist - partially for the reasons you cite. But for non-power users that have just a handful of apps on their phone, this is huge!
Hate to be a party Party pooper. Carriers will make up for sms by raising rate plans or some other way.
It would take quite a bit of texting to bump up data usage significantly! I wish them luck with that...
Ok well this is for iPhones only. If you want to text to someone else you have Textie as an alternative.
It's for all iOS devices...
How is this different from something like Textie? Am I missing something here? Textie has the extra ability to send free texts to non-iPhones.
It's embedded in the texting app. So instead of having two texting apps, it's all there in the native one.
Plus, no ads, your friends won't get oddly formatted texts, or texts from numbers that aren't your phone number...
The carriers might have been surprised by iMessage but they got some really good news today. The availability of over the air syncing and updates means that the average user will be using a lot more data than they do today. Locking people into higher tier data plans means more guaranteed income every month.
As soon as I saw them messaging between iPad and iPhone, i wondered how this would work. Would the iPhone have two separate messaging apps, one called iMessaging for chatting between iOS users and another called Messages for everyone else? Would messages from your iPad be free but messages from your iPhone still count toward your texting plan? Now it sounds as though neither is true, and that there is a single messaging app that happens to send messages to iOS devices outside the carrier's messaging plan. But assuming a person doesnt know who in their address book does and doesn't have an iPhone, how will the user know which messages are costing them and which are free? Will they be visually marked somehow? What if my friend has an iPad and an android phone; will iMessaging somehow notify me which he's texting me from so that I can know if its counting against my cellular texting plan or not? It all seems very confusing.
It seems confusing because it hasn't been released yet. The information will come, be patient
Yes, it is all in one app.
In response to how do you know which messages are free and which ones cost, the answer is: whether or not they're free or not, it'll still be less than what you're currently using.
Apple is releasing this in order to provide text for non phone devices. It is a convenient by product that we will get free texts.
Finally, address book as an option to assign the name "iPhone" instead of "mobile" or "home". After using that a couple times I've learned who has an iPhone and who doesn't
Not a direct solution, but there's enough there to mitigate most of your concerns.