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Q: iMessage on iPad and iPhone Explained and De-Mystified

Apple's much-anticipated iOS5 has a lot of cool features, one of which is the iMessage platform.  What I've discovered is a lot of confusion among the masses on how this platform works.  I, myself, have been confused on how to set this up so that I can maintain iMessage convos on both my iPad2 and iPhone.  Last night, I set out to figure this all out and post my findings here.  What I am about to outline has worked for me and I feel is the way Apple intended it to work.  For good or bad, I don't plan to discuss the merits of how Apple has designed this platform.  I am simply sharing what has worked for me. 

 

In order for me to test my theories I used my iPad 2, iPhone 4S and my wife's iPad and iPhone 4.  This allowed me to test the iMessage platform as if I were messaging one of my contacts who I know had installed iOS5 but theoretically doesn't live under my roof, so to speak.  My example will center around my particular situation:  someone who has both an iPad (or other non-iPhone device) and an iPhone 4S (or 4 or 3GS) AND wants to keep iMessage convos in sync across all my devices.  After all, this is one of the main benefits of iMessage that Apple touts. 

 

First and foremost, it is important to activate iMessage on all your iOS5 devices using the same Apple ID.  This will "link" all your iOS5 devices in the Apple ecosystem and keep convos you initiate in sync across your iOS5 devices.  Some of you may run into a situation like I did where our PRIMARY Apple ID is the one we use as a family to purchase music, apps, etc.  In the case of iMessage, every family member should have their own unique Apple ID (a secondary ID to your primary ID) to use on their own iOS5 devices.  This will keep all your iMessages separate and distinct from other family members' iMessage convos.  The next important setting, and the one that causes a lot of confusion, is the "Receive At" setting.  On your iPhone this is your cell phone number, by default.  You will also want to add an e-mail address as another "Receive At" location.  If you have an iPad or other non-iPhone iOS5 device, you will want to choose an e-mail address (on my devices my Apple ID is the same as my e-mail address I am using on the "Receive At" setting) as your "Receive At" setting.  The important thing to note is that if you have both an iPhone and iPad (or any other non-iPhone device) you will want to use the same e-mail address on both devices.  This will help keep your convos that others have initiated to you in sync across your iOS5 devices.  Finally, the Caller ID is the next setting to consider.  You have two options here:  (1) your cell number, or (2) the e-mail address you entered in the step above.  Your choice depends on how you want others to see your contact info and whether or not keeping convos in sync across your iOS5 devices is important.  My example below will illustrate this.

 

EXAMPLE:

Keeping messages in sync across my devices is important so I have provided my Apple ID that I used above to all my contacts who use iOS5 devices and I have asked them to use this to iMessage me.  This is the only way that an iMessage convo initiated by one of your contacts to you will stay in sync across all your iOS5 devices.  If they use your cell number, then the iMessage convo will only show up on your iPhone.  Even though the Apple ID you used to activate iMessage in the Apple ecosystem links your devices, a reply from your iPhone to an iMessage sent only to your cell phone will not "push" the reply to your non-iPhone device.  Long story short, give all your iOS5 contacts the e-mail address you entered above in the "Receive At" setting and all your convos will stay in sync.  This is very similar to the BlackBerry Messenger protocol and the PIN that BBM users need to provide other BBM users so they can message each other. 


I commandeered my wife's iPad and iPhone and began sending iMessages back and forth between my and her devices.  Step 1, I sent an iMessage from my iPad 2 to her cell number.  Because I initiated the iMessage to my wife and my devices were both activated in the Apple ecosystem using my Apple ID, the convo appeared on both my iPad and iPhone but she received my iMessage on her iPhone but NOT her iPad.  This is because her iPad is connected to the iMessage platform through her "Receive At" email address; there is no "link" between her iPhone cell number and her iPad.  When she responded to my iMessage, the convo continued to appear only on her iPhone but appears on both my iPad 2 and iPhone.  Step 2, I sent her an iMessage to her "Receive At" email address and she received the message on both her devices.  As in the first scenario, the convo appears on both of my devices.  At this point, because I used her "Receive At" email address, the convo is in sync on both of her devices.  Here is an important tip:  when you type in a contact name on the "To:" line of an iMessage, their available iMessage "Receive At" email addresses and cell phone number will appear with a little blue balloon next to them.  The opposite of the above occurred when my wife initiated the iMessages to me as described in Step 1 and Step 2.

 

In summary:

First, make sure you activate iMessage on all your devices using your unique Apple ID.  This links your devices in the Apple iMessage ecosystem.  Second, choose a "Receive At" email address that you can provide to your contacts that use iOS5 so that convos that they initiate to you will be in sync across your iOS5 devices.  Lastly, I recommend setting your Caller ID to your "Receive At" email address.  This will prompt any users that don't have your "Receive At" email address to add it to their contacts.  It may go without saying, but if your iOS5 contacts have multiple iOS5 devices and they are interested in keeping their convos in sync across their devices they will have to provide you their "Receive At" email address as their preferred iMessage contact.

 

Hope this helps.


 


iPad 2, iOS 5, iMessage on iPad 2 and iPhone 4S

Posted on Oct 15, 2011 6:26 PM

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Q: iMessage on iPad and iPhone Explained and De-Mystified

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  • by Stema001,

    Stema001 Stema001 May 16, 2012 4:19 PM in response to JohnLMills
    Level 1 (115 points)
    Notebooks
    May 16, 2012 4:19 PM in response to JohnLMills

    Ok, so the solution is to set up your mail adress as main iMessage ID on the iPhone. Then everthing works?

  • by Jerry Fornal,

    Jerry Fornal Jerry Fornal May 16, 2012 4:25 PM in response to Stema001
    Level 1 (10 points)
    iPhone
    May 16, 2012 4:25 PM in response to Stema001

    The thing is I'm not quite sure there's a way to do that.  On your iPhone - you have the option of adding a second iMessage address - but the phone number remains.

     

    Whether this is a bug or not - it's clearly not an intuitive way to handle this type of messaging.  I'm not going to text or email all of my iDevice wielding friends and tell them to change the contact info they have for me in their phones - only when it comes to text messaging...

     

    My thought is - if I connect my phone number to my Apple ID, I should be getting the messages everywhere - period.

  • by Nutronic,

    Nutronic Nutronic Jun 24, 2012 4:23 AM in response to rbbcpa
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPod
    Jun 24, 2012 4:23 AM in response to rbbcpa

    I would like to know that when choosing a contacts email address why it sends as MMS on my 4s instead of iMessage when I know that it is also their Apple ID?

  • by Chris CA,

    Chris CA Chris CA Jun 24, 2012 8:11 AM in response to Nutronic
    Level 9 (79,653 points)
    iTunes
    Jun 24, 2012 8:11 AM in response to Nutronic

    Nutronic wrote:

     

    I would like to know that when choosing a contacts email address why it sends as MMS on my 4s instead of iMessage when I know that it is also their Apple ID?

     

    Because they have not assigned that AppleID to their iMessage. Settings > Messages > Receive at.

    Send it to ther phone number, not their AppleID.

  • by Nutronic,

    Nutronic Nutronic Jun 25, 2012 12:55 AM in response to Chris CA
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPod
    Jun 25, 2012 12:55 AM in response to Chris CA

    They have because I set it up that way.

  • by Laneybel2002,

    Laneybel2002 Laneybel2002 Aug 1, 2012 6:02 AM in response to rbbcpa
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 1, 2012 6:02 AM in response to rbbcpa

    HI

     

    I have an I pad 3, tried to set up the message service and send mess to my i phone.  I have no caller Id settings in the I message settings... help

     

    Can only send messages to my hotmail e mail address.

     

    Thanks

  • by Chris CA,

    Chris CA Chris CA Aug 1, 2012 12:36 PM in response to Laneybel2002
    Level 9 (79,653 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 1, 2012 12:36 PM in response to Laneybel2002

    Laneybel2002 wrote:

     

    HI

     

    I have an I pad 3, tried to set up the message service and send mess to my i phone

    Open Messages app, tap the + sign to add a new recipient and select your contact with the iPhone numer.

     

     

    I have no caller Id settings in the I message settings... help

    There are no CallerID settings on the iPad.

  • by Stema001,

    Stema001 Stema001 Aug 1, 2012 12:44 PM in response to Laneybel2002
    Level 1 (115 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 1, 2012 12:44 PM in response to Laneybel2002

    Wai t for iOS 6.0! It will unify your phone number and your e-mail as 1 iMessage ID. This will de-mystify the iMessage iPad/iPhone issue.

  • by Chris CA,

    Chris CA Chris CA Aug 1, 2012 12:56 PM in response to Stema001
    Level 9 (79,653 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 1, 2012 12:56 PM in response to Stema001

    Stema001 wrote:

     

    Wai t for iOS 6.0!

    Why?

    It works fine now.

     

    I don't want FaceTime calls to go to my iPad if they are calling my iPhone.

  • by Stema001,

    Stema001 Stema001 Aug 1, 2012 1:10 PM in response to Chris CA
    Level 1 (115 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 1, 2012 1:10 PM in response to Chris CA

    Well, atm, I can't use iMessage on my iPad nor on my Mac.

     

    1) I want to use iMessage for what it was created! Start a conversation at iPhone and continue it on my iPad. This only works, if I get the message at my e-mail. My friends iMessage me at my phone number! I won't tell all my iMessage friends to message at my e-mail. If I will do this, iMessages won't reach me at abroad (I always switch data-roaming off!)

    2) It creates a second conversation on my friends' iPhones. One with my phone number and one with my e-mail. That's very annoying!

     

    iOS 6.0 unifies the phone number and the e-mail. That should be done at the start of iMessage (iOS 5.0). Well, Apple decided to make iMessage fully useable (on all devices -> phone number/e-mail) with iOS 6.0!

  • by Chris CA,

    Chris CA Chris CA Aug 1, 2012 3:17 PM in response to Stema001
    Level 9 (79,653 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 1, 2012 3:17 PM in response to Stema001

    But Laneybel2002, whom you responded to, wants to send a message from their own iPad to their own iPhone, not from their iPad to their iPad.

     

    I don't want the messages sent to my iPad to also go to my phone or vice-versa.

    That's why I do not have an emial address associated with Messages on my iPhone.

  • by Laneybel2002,

    Laneybel2002 Laneybel2002 Aug 2, 2012 12:02 AM in response to Chris CA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 2, 2012 12:02 AM in response to Chris CA

    Hi

    Sorry I am trying to work out how to send a message to another person and was just using my I Phone as a guide. Can I send to any person's mobile number. Still can't work it out.

  • by Chris CA,

    Chris CA Chris CA Aug 2, 2012 7:22 AM in response to Laneybel2002
    Level 9 (79,653 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 2, 2012 7:22 AM in response to Laneybel2002

    Laneybel2002 wrote:

     

    Can I send to any person's mobile number.

    Not uising Messages app on the iPad.

  • by iCoco,

    iCoco iCoco Aug 14, 2012 11:28 PM in response to rbbcpa
    Level 1 (110 points)
    iCloud
    Aug 14, 2012 11:28 PM in response to rbbcpa

    Thank you, rbbcpa, for making this clear. Now this is the first time that i really understand the behaviour of iMessage syncing. Great explanation.

     

    Looking forward to iOS 6, which is said to solve this issue, finally.

  • by johnfrombarnsley,

    johnfrombarnsley johnfrombarnsley Jan 3, 2013 9:59 AM in response to rbbcpa
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 3, 2013 9:59 AM in response to rbbcpa

    I need a noose !!!

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