Apple Offers Fix To 'Annoying' iMessage Glitch

Apple has resolved a longtime issue revolving around SMS and iMessages that some partners say "should have been done sooner."

A number of users who have switched from iPhone to Android smartphones have complained that when iPhone users send them iMessages to their new Android device that is the same phone number as their old iPhone, the messages would get lost and the user would never see it. This happened because iMessage is exclusive to iPhones, so Android users would never read it, leaving the senders of these messages to think they are being ignored. Apple today released a solution to the issue in a new web tool, appeasing complaints of former iPhone owners.

"It's about time. This problem has been there for a while. I think they should have addressed it sooner, but I'm glad they fixed it," said Stephen Monteros, vice president of business development and strategic initiatives at SIGMAnet, an Ontario, Calif.-based solution provider and Apple partner. "If you look at the whole ecosystem, Android is going to co-exist with iOS, and it's not going to be an iOS world. They will need to work together more closely. I've experienced the problem, and it was an annoyance. It was something they could have fixed more quickly."

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Monteros said he uses both iPhone and Android devices as he likes to stay familiar with both of the leading operating systems on the market. He said when he migrated from iPhone, he experienced the problem and put in a note to Apple without getting back an answer. Monteros said he ended up telling people who send him messages to only send it a certain way, or else he wouldn't get them.

"I believe Apple got some negative publicity from this, so that is why they fixed it," Monteros said. "They have the ability to resolve something like this quickly. The question is, why don’t they? My guess is they are so iOS-centric they tend to focus on their own world and not focus on interoperability."

The new web tool Apple has released that resolves the issue allows users who switch from iPhones to Android devices to deregister their phone numbers from Apple's iMessage database. People who switch from iPhone to Android smartphones simply enter their phone number into the web tool and receive a confirmation code back, and the process is complete. This allows for future SMS messages to properly go through to Android devices going forward.

While some partners have complained about experiencing the issue firsthand, others don't believe the solution is to a widespread problem.

"Honestly, I had never heard of the bug initially. I'm surprised that now that the bug is fixed, all these people are coming out of the woodwork saying it was effecting them," said Michael Oh, CEO of Tech Superpowers, an Apple partner based in Boston. "But it shows you how widespread the iPhone is that even if a bug only effects 0.001 percent of people, it still effects hundreds, or even thousands. We have a pretty widespread exposure but I've never run into it. I know it wasn’t all Android users who switched from iPhone. I know it wasn’t every Android user who didn’t do the correct steps to switch. It's not what I've seen. I think it's a bit overblown."

Apple did not reply to CRN's request for comment at the time of this writing.

PUBLISHED NOV. 10, 2014