iMessage

miikeeyy92 · 29 Jan 2013 at 19:35

Okay, so I have all 3, the iPhone, iPad and Mac.

I have iMessage set up on all 3 to send and receive from my number, but when my phone doesn't have internet, any iMessages get sent to my Mac and iPad anyways and so I don't get them on my phone until i connect to the internet.

Is there anyway to configure it so if they can't get to my phone they don't come at all until i get internet on my phone?

Thanks.

JonB · 29 Jan 2013 at 20:04

Nope.

miikeeyy92 · 29 Jan 2013 at 20:12

Fantastic!

shine · 29 Jan 2013 at 20:18

Instead of using your phone number setup an email address as your iMessage ID across all your devices. Use the email as your main sender/recipient and everything should sync as you want.

miikeeyy92 · 29 Jan 2013 at 20:54

shine said:
Instead of using your phone number setup an email address as your iMessage ID across all your devices. Use the email as your main sender/recipient and everything should sync as you want.

Wouldnt that end up as the same as it is now? Mac and iPad having internet so it goes to them when it cant go to my phone. I'll give it a try though, thanks.

JonB · 29 Jan 2013 at 22:26

Yes it would. You can't do what you want I'm afraid, unless you turned iMessage on the other two devices off.

ic1male · 30 Jan 2013 at 10:47

miikeeyy92 said:
if they can't get to my phone they don't come at all until i get internet on my phone?

I'm just wondering why this is a problem for you? At the end of the day you still get the message so why does it matter which devices get the message first?

Antowns · 30 Jan 2013 at 11:02

Make sure you set the default caller ID to the e-mail address too otherwise you'll be sending replies via your phone number and things will become threaded by number, annoyingly.

miikeeyy92 · 30 Jan 2013 at 11:08

ic1male said:
I'm just wondering why this is a problem for you? At the end of the day you still get the message so why does it matter which devices get the message first?

Fair point, but there has been a few times that i've needed to know something and I only have my phone with me.

ic1male · 30 Jan 2013 at 11:10

miikeeyy92 said:
Fair point, but there has been a few times that i've needed to know something and I only have my phone with me.

Oh I think I've misunderstood. So you don't get a SMS text if iMessage detects you are logged in via the Internet? So if the other devices weren't on a Wifi network, the message would be sent as SMS (at cost to Apple presumably) rather than a free internet message?

MrMoonX · 30 Jan 2013 at 20:21

ic1male said:
Oh I think I've misunderstood. So you don't get a SMS text if iMessage detects you are logged in via the Internet? So if the other devices weren't on a Wifi network, the message would be sent as SMS (at cost to Apple presumably) rather than a free internet message?

errr no, think of imessage as BBM if you have internet the sender's phone will send it as an imessage, when there is no internet it will know this as you wont be online to imessage and send it as a text.

miikeeyy92 · 30 Jan 2013 at 22:16

MrMoonX said:
errr no, think of imessage as BBM if you have internet the sender's phone will send it as an imessage, when there is no internet it will know this as you wont be online to imessage and send it as a text.

This.

But as im online according to the iPad and the Mac, it sends as iMessage anyways, not SMS.

johns-andy · 31 Jan 2013 at 09:11

shine said:
Instead of using your phone number setup an email address as your iMessage ID across all your devices. Use the email as your main sender/recipient and everything should sync as you want.

Stealing the thread here but saves me opening another.

But basically if I am understanding right. If you have an iPhone you can receive iMessages to your mail address?

Reason being is that I use iMessage on iPad to communicate while travelling internationally and was planning an iPhone 5. Was worried that if I got an iPhone 5 people would need to message me on my Australian number and that could end up with them getting charges and me as well.

So you can set an iPhone to use a mail address for iMessages too?

kidscruff · 1 Feb 2013 at 15:57

johns-andy said:
So you can set an iPhone to use a mail address for iMessages too?

Yes, under iMessage settings you will see something like "Receive at: 2 addresses" which will list you mobile number and your email address. You can set the "Caller ID" to your phone number or your email address - this will become the default "sent from" address that your contacts will see.

However, with iOS6, your Apple account should link your iMessage phone number(s) and email address(es) together. So that an iMessage sent to your mobile number will also be received on iPad, Mac, etc... (Although I haven't tested this myself). Also means you can send/receive from your mobile number from iPad/Mac, as per the OP.

This was never the case in iOS5, where iMessages sent to mobile number only appeared on your phone, and iMessages sent to email address would appear on every device.

Bear in mind that if someone SENDS an iMessage to your phone number, and you reply to that message thread, I believe your "Caller ID" will be your phone number, despite what your default setting is [see Additional Information].

kidscruff · 1 Feb 2013 at 16:44

ic1male said:
Oh I think I've misunderstood. So you don't get a SMS text if iMessage detects you are logged in via the Internet? So if the other devices weren't on a Wifi network, the message would be sent as SMS (at cost to Apple presumably) rather than a free internet message?

As I understand it, an iMessage reverts to SMS at the time of sending (from an iPhone), only if it can't make the data connection to the Apple server. AFAIK it only looks at the sender's data connection, irrespective or whether the receiver has data or not.

Don't think Apple would ever convert a sent iMessage (data only) into an SMS, as this is messing with the network providers.

I believe miikeeyy92's problem is that iMessages are being sent to his number just fine, but because they are data messages he's not receiving them on his iPhone when he has no data connection.

It would make no difference whether he was using his phone number or email address as his Caller ID (they're linked anyway).

Turning off iMessage on the Mac and iPad wouldn't help either! Other iDevices would still be sending iMessages to the iPhone number, which would be stored until a data connection was re-established. So no device is receiving iMessages!

The only way he would receive messages on his iPhone, with no data, would be via SMS. In other words, turning off iMessage on the iPhone. This would likely remove the phone number as Caller ID for the iPad and Mac, leaving you with 2 separate points of contact: use phone number for SMS, and email address for iMessage.

miikeeyy92 · 6 Feb 2013 at 23:41

kidscruff said:
As I understand it, an iMessage reverts to SMS at the time of sending (from an iPhone), only if it can't make the data connection to the Apple server. AFAIK it only looks at the sender's data connection, irrespective or whether the receiver has data or not.

Don't think Apple would ever convert a sent iMessage (data only) into an SMS, as this is messing with the network providers.

I believe miikeeyy92's problem is that iMessages are being sent to his number just fine, but because they are data messages he's not receiving them on his iPhone when he has no data connection.

It would make no difference whether he was using his phone number or email address as his Caller ID (they're linked anyway).

Turning off iMessage on the Mac and iPad wouldn't help either! Other iDevices would still be sending iMessages to the iPhone number, which would be stored until a data connection was re-established. So no device is receiving iMessages!

The only way he would receive messages on his iPhone, with no data, would be via SMS. In other words, turning off iMessage on the iPhone. This would likely remove the phone number as Caller ID for the iPad and Mac, leaving you with 2 separate points of contact: use phone number for SMS, and email address for iMessage.

This is sort of semi hitting the nail on the head.

Obviously I could turn iMessages off on everything, and so I would only receive SMS', however iMessages are very handy so thats not an option.

I think the only way round it is to turn wifi off on the iPad every time I leave, so the messages can't go there instead of my phone. (Mac would be asleep too.)

ic1male · 6 Feb 2013 at 23:48

Does iMessage work over 3G then? I get messages to/from all my family members who have an iPhone but I don't, I use an iPod touch.

Captain · 7 Feb 2013 at 01:44

iPod touch would only work over wifi, as it doesn't have a 3G connection or data plan.

ic1male · 7 Feb 2013 at 10:07

Clov!s said:
iPod touch would only work over wifi, as it doesn't have a 3G connection or data plan.

Yes, I know that so does iMessage work over 3G for the iPhone? I thought it was wifi only.

Draeger · 7 Feb 2013 at 10:14

Jumping into thread with another related iMessage question!.

I've got it activated on my iPhone 4 running iOS 6.1. However when I text my wife who has a 3GS, she receives the text from me and it shows up as coming into her phone from my email address, not from the name she has me under in her contacts. I'm pretty sure this didn't happen before with it previous to me updating from 5.0.1 to 6.1 the other day when evasi0n came out. Is there a way around this so that any texts I send end up landing in folks phones from my contact details they have within their phone and not my email address?. Or is that not possible with iMessage given how it actually works?.