How to have separate chats w/ same person in messages app

Question

Level 1

16 points

How to have separate chats w/ same person in messages app

Hey guys,

is there a way to have multiple chats with the same contact but different addresses in the messages app (El Cap)?

My problem: I have two conversation with the same person: I text him via iMessage using his email address and via text message (phone number, no iPhone) that is displayed in the messages app through Continuity (or hands-off or whatever they call that). However, the iMessage chat and the text message chat (which is separate on my iPhone) is mixed within one chat on the Mac (i.e. mixture of blue and green bubbles). And when I type a message on the Mac it's a lottery whether it will be sent as an iMessage or as a text message. On the iPhone it's clearly distinct.

How can I have separate chats in the messages.app on my Mac?

Thanks,

Phil

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), i7 2,0 GHz, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD

Posted on May 24, 2016 11:58 AM

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Answer 1

May 25, 2016 12:05 PM in response to Mr. Riebmann

Hi,

That sounds like the iPhone and Mac are not syncing the contacts lists then.

If the Address Card has both iPhone Number and Apple ID for the person then it should link/sync iMessages sent to the iPhone Number and the Apple ID (or Sent From)

Now it is possible that in the Settings on the iPhone > Messages > Send and Receive that the iPhone Number get deselected (it shouldn't do as it is greyed out and not changeable by the User).

However I have had mine become unticked Twice.

This removes the iPhone Number from the iMessages Server and if left too long will unsync the Apple ID eventually.

In between time you may have items sent to the Apple ID that show up like they would normally and sync only "copies" of items sent to the iPhone Number.

i.e. at the end of the day the iPhone may be doing this be accident rather than working properly.

for the Points

8:05 pm Wednesday; May 25, 2016

 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (El Capitan)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 iPhone and an iPad (2)

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Answer 2

May 25, 2016 6:33 AM in response to Mr. Riebmann

Hi,

Create different Contacts Card for him.

9:13 pm Tuesday; May 24, 2016

 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (El Capitan)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 iPhone and an iPad (2)

Reply

Answer 3

Mr. Riebmann Author

Level 1

16 points

May 25, 2016 6:33 AM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Yeh, thanks for your reply.

I thought about that as well, but it seems rather like a workaround and not like a solution. And since it is separated on the iPhone, I assumed there might be one way or another to achieve that on the Mac as well w/o creating two contacts.

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