“Apple’s new iMessage simply rocks and it takes messaging on your favorite iOS device to a whole new level. It offers some new features that SMS cannot beat like multiple address support and selectable caller ID,” David W. Martin reports for Cult of Mac.
MacDailyNews Take: RIM’s hatin’ life. Luckily for them it’ll be over sooner than later.
“You’ll be able to receive messages from more than one e-mail address to your iOS device,” Martin reports. “If anyone sends a message to any of the addresses it shows up on the device for which this has been configured.”
Martin reports, “iMessage allows you to select what people see in the iMessage app when you text them. You have the option of allowing your Caller ID to display your phone number or any of the e-mail addresses you set up. If you select an e-mail address with your name as part of that address then people can quickly identify you the first time you text them.”
Beaucoup screenshots in the full article here.
RIM–if you make a big enough mistake, it doesn’t hurt for very long.
I for one am excited about iMessage, however, if it is not cross compatible with various IM services as well as with SMS, then it will definitely kill my ability to enjoy the experience of using it in any permanent way.
Time to let go. IM is dead, the idea of supporting multiple aging goofball clients and protocols is impractical. Apple’s not coping Adium or the like anytime soon, nor the telegraph nor the pony express.
So with iMessage I can text for free even with people that don’t have iPhones?
No. If someone has an iPad with email address and iPhone the combined info from that person is merged into one messaging convesation rather than 2( 1 for email & 1 for iPhone)
I’m guessing it will only work with apple devices, although it may become a defacto open standard. I think the same stratagy goes for facetime
OMG Revolutionary! Om nom nom. You better believe it! ™ =:~B
Yeah if it only works between iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch then this is a disaster. Now I have yet ANOTHER app to deal with, in addition to SMS and email and Facebook? And iChat is STILL this lone child wandering around on the Mac… with Facetime as yet another app wandering around not connected to anything. This whole solution is just not Mac-like. They should have just made iChat for Windows, and then integrated Facetime and SMS messaging into iChat. Boom – one cross-platform solution. Instead we have this bizarre splintered world of Mac vs. Windows plus SMS plus FaceTime plus iMessage… WHAT??????
Looks to me like iMessage incorporates regular texting. If iMessage is unavailable (like for the weird friend or two with a droid phone) it appears to fall back to SMS. So one texting app. I think. We’ll see.
The fact that BBM was blackberry only never seemed to hurt its popularity, I’m not sure how this would be any different when you factor in the number of iOS devices.
Just great how people spout off without knowing jack. It integrates into the sms app and automatically detects if you are messaging to an apple device –> imessage goes out if to an non apple device –>sms goes out. Read up next time before you start with the “not Mac-like” “they should have just” “Boom” “bizzare splintered world” comments. I’m sure Apple is looking for people who have user names like “Romeodawg” who have better ideas than they do. So why don’t you go put your application in. jobs.apple.com
Relax, dude. It’s still splintered between iChat and FaceTime and SMS with different solutions for Apple and non-Apple products. This is an opinion board and I’m entitled to mine, but thanks for the condescension. I’ve had a Mac since 1985, I’m a Mac consultant and I know from Mac-like.
Message is sent and relayed I believe via Apple’s servers. With Email addresses, they terminate the message and forward it to iMessage.
So, what happens if you have multiple iDevices on 1 account? Can I really text my kids on their iTouch device if they are all attached to the same account? Additionally, what’s to stop them receiving my texts if they are on the same account?
That’s the big question that I have yet to see addressed in any of the the descriptions. It is going to become much harder to use one account with multiple family members. I really hope Apple figures out a good viable solution to multiple users.
It appears that your iMessage profile is linked to your cell number &/or your email address–not necessarily your Apple account. It looks to be device-to-device–independent of which account the device is linked to in iTunes. Facetime is email address-centric as well..
It should support some open messaging standard. Macs are still minority. iChat isn’t much joy if the rest of the world uses other protocols.
So far Skype is best because it works everywhere 🙂