An Organic Guide to iMessage

On the 12th October iOS 5 ushered in a new service -iMessage- which is now available to all users on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Some people are confused by this new facility, espeically as the Messages app is now appearing on the likes of iPad 2 for the first time, so a definitive guide to the workings and use of this facility seems apposite. iMessage overview iMessage uses the default Messages app and adds it to iPad/iPod touch. There is no separate app for ‘IMessage”. On an iPhone the ID by default will be your phone number. Activating it may cost the price of a foreign SMS. On other devices, such as iPad, the ID will be an email address of your choice. The initial address used by iOS 5 will most likely be your Apple ID. Messages may be received at more than one address: you may add multiple addresses on iPad/iPod and equally you may receive at eMail addresses on your iPhone as well as your phone number. Once multiple addresses are applied, click on the ‘receive at’ field to set the “Caller ID” -the one you wish your messages to appear from coming from. You may change this at will. Note that if you have the same email address on two or more devices you will receive the same messages on those devices. You may consider this a boon or an irritation -it’s your choice.But if you leave the same email address on both iPhone and iPad, say, you may take up and leave a conversation on the handiest device. To remove or change an existing solo email address you must first add another address before you can then remove the offending one: the service must have at least one ID at which it may receive messages. Setting up an eMail address at which to receive requires receiving a verification eMail from Apple and clicking on it before a given address may be used. iMessage depends on a data connection. This can be home broadband or 3G on device or 3.5G from a MiFi, for example. iPhone: A typical setup in Settings/Messages would be as follows: iMessage: ON Send Read Receipts: ON Send as SMS: OFF (recommended) Receive at: +3538xxxxxxx (plus other email addresses if desired) iPad/iPod touch A typical setup in settings/Messages would be as follows: iMessage: ON Read Receipts: ON Receive at: One or more email addresses Show Subject Field: ON Use of iMessage For those used to SMS on a typical iPhone here are some of the changes. The text box will show the legend “iMessage” when available. This means that your contact at the other end has an iOS device and has updated to iOS 5 and is live. The send button will now be blue. Green is used for SMS. Any text you send will appear in blue. SMS text will be in green. Unlike SMS, you may now send, free of charge (FOC) to any destination -foreign phone number or iPad using an eMail address. Successful sending will depend on a data connection of any type at either end and of course, the other party having installed iOS 5. A sent message will change to ‘delivered’ underneath your blue text when it arrives at the other end, then to ‘read’ when he/she has read it. If the message cannot be sent via iMessage because the other party is not online, then it will be sent as an SMS/LMS/MMS depending on the content of your iMessage. This can prove costly if you are sending to a foreign destination. For this reason, in my opinion, “Send as SMS” should be set to off. When “Send as SMS” is set to off, this does not prevent standard SMS being sent to a non-iOS 5 destination of your choice as you have always done. It merely prevents costly international or out-of-bundle messages from being sent as an iMessage by accident. Again, iMessage requires a data connection. Therefore, if you send while abroad, this will incur data roaming charges on 3G. iMessage will use your data allowance, therefore if not on an unlimited bundle, you need to watch your usage. iMessage may be used to send Text (no constraints on length of message have been discovered; 75,000 messages may be stored) Photos (from your library or take on the spot) Video (from your library or take on the spot) Voice (use Voice Memos app and choose share/message) Location (use Maps, tap on location, choose share/message) Business Cards (use Contacts, choose contact, choose share/Message). iPad iPad now has native messaging for the first time. This works in the same manner as iPhone but SMS is not available. Most of the recommendations and options above apply. There is therefore no “send as SMS” option to turn off. You may send to phone number and email address alike: your iMessages will be delivered to the family of iOS devices FOC. All devices There is no way of knowing who has iMessage and who doesnt at time of writing, save by trial and error. When you attempt to send to an active destination, your send button will turn from green to blue (on iPhone) and from greyed out to blue on iPad/iPod. The word Message will change from that to iMessage (on iPhone On the other devices there is ONLY iMessage).There is no need to actually send a message if all you want to do is to find out if a contact is now on iMessage. Once you have sent a message, that contact is established as an iMessage destination and a blue speech bubble will appear next to their entry. If “send as SMS’ is turned off on iphone, then there is nothing to lose by testing suspected iMessage users. I think that covers most of it, I will update if and when I think of some other information regarding this great new service. __________________

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