6 ms·

iMessage Should Have a Dead Battery Auto-Responder

31 points by treblig 14y ago

SparksZilla 14y ago
I like this, but can see some problems with iMessage on multiple devices. Ignoring that, I'd love to get a push notification at ~5% battery asking me if I'd like to put an auto-responder on.
pomajp 14y ago
I usually “know” someone’s phone has died when 2 straight messages go through as SMS, but a standard notification would be awesome.
thegrul 14y ago
It can't make any negative remarks about the battery life of any idevice, but it could be kinda nice if it said whether or not the receivers idevice is turned off.
10dpd 14y ago
A simple 'read receipt' would be much better, if its not already built in, although I suspect it is.
- Alphasite_ 14y ago
  It is.
- treblig 14y ago
  Yep, it is built in, but many (including myself) disable it. It's pretty common that I accidentally open a message, but I don't have a response / a chance to respond yet, and I don't want the person to think I'm ignoring them.
  - lostlogin 14y ago
    Yeah, plausible deniability. I know a work place which demands them for email. Evil.
- keeperofdakeys 14y ago
  In fact, SMS already has this system in place. Naturally there are some networks/phones that don't support it, and its meaning can vary from "network received" to "phone received".
Pwnadog 14y ago
Why not turn it around and have iMessages send a "message received" notification when receiving a message? Have it display like a little checkmark next to any sent message that turns green if the other phone pings back. Just that - no read receipt like there is now, as that isn't always convenient.
- nwh 14y ago
  It already does, they're called read receipts.
  - msh 14y ago
    it also have delivered receipts, they are turned on by default opposed to the read receipts (which need to be turned on manually).
nwh 14y ago
Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The iMessage client can't keep messages in order or search them, let alone do anything complicated like that.
- coob 14y ago
  Messages has a search bar at the top of the main tableview. Message search is also built into the iOS spotlight screen (left of first home screen).
  - nwh 14y ago
    On both systems, you can't do anything but search for the first instance of a message. It is completely and utterly useless. It also hangs and and crashes on my system if you try. ED: I tried searching for a word in Messages at five minutes ago, and the results still haven't appeared. 100% CPU usage. ED2: 10 minutes now, 2.24GB of memory use. ED3: Results showed, then client crashed at 13 minutes.
    - lostlogin 14y ago
      Hmm. Works 100% reliably for me. Wish I could say the same for my email, which works about 10% of the time on my phone.
  - whalesalad 14y ago
    It's really unreliable and half assed. The parent commenter is a absolutely right. iMessage is full of bugs they need to really fix them! They have done an amazing thing though. Sidenote: apple has the ability to mine so many conversations for data. It's more intimate than twitter and I'd imagine more iMessages are sent each day than tweets. If something happens anywhere in the world Apple would theoretically be the first to know. Kinda nuts.
    - zapu 14y ago
      I wasn't aware how buggy Messages application can be until I started using it more. Weird UI glitches, messages coming out of order (?) are the two I notice often.
almostbutnot 14y ago
There are privacy concerns when you tell people about the state of another persons device. There is also the concept of sending a message saying a devices battery is dead "gosh iPhones always have dead batteries I keep getting this alert from my friends". These are good intention designs but not quite there.
rem1313 14y ago
iMessages has built in notification to the sender if the message has been delivered to the receiver, hence the status "Delivered" or (if receiver has opted-in) also Read status. I see no point in this feature, since the phone could be dead for various reasons, not just battery
- k33l0r 14y ago
  It would be nice if the delivered indicator could be relied upon, but it seems to report that a message has been delivered once the Apple servers have received it, not when the destination device has received it. This is especially noticeable under poor network conditions (I think I first noticed it at a music festival where even regular SMS messages struggled to get through due to network congestion).
  - Terretta 14y ago
    Nope. It needs to hit a device to say Delivered. For example, if the recipient is out of 3G data coverage but can fall back to SMS, you won't get Delivered, you'll get a line across your conversation denoting a switch to Text Message and a different color bubble. (Several people I message are in marginal coverage areas several hours a day, so I get to see this in action daily.)
adrr 14y ago
But I use "my was battery dead" excuse when i am too lazy to respond.
- scottbartell 14y ago
  This is exactly what I was thinking!
steeve 14y ago
The point is moot. iMessage as delivery notifications. If the message is not marked as "Delivered", it means the other phone didn't get it. But it can be spotty at times with poor data connection.
- hartleybrody 14y ago
  Agreed. Whether it's "I don't have service" or "My battery is dead," there are a number of conditions that keep a recipient from seeing a message right away, all of which are (usually) temporary. Relying on "delivered" takes care of all of those situations, and is much more elegant in the UI than adding an "auto responder" message.
- gpmcadam 14y ago
  Does 'Delivered' show up when the message is received by another iOS device? e.g. I often leave my iPad at home but still connected to iMessage, and if that receives the messages my iPhone doesn't, wouldn't this give a false impression of delivery to the sender?
  - josho 14y ago
    iMessage's are sent to all of your devices. I have iMessage on my mac, iPhone & iPad. All 3 devices receive messages sent to me. That's true even if one of the device is turned off for some period of time. Apple, did seem to go through some growing pains where this didn't always work as above. To answer your other question the delivered flag is set if any of your devices receives the message.
turutu 14y ago
Many XMPP clients support message delivery receipts. Maybe there is also one for iOS.
m_eiman 14y ago
The problem hasn't got anything to do with delivery notifications or auto-responders: if you need an answer right away you must use a synchronous form of communication, e.g. voice call. iMessage, SMS, email et al are async by design. Until you hear or see an ack that's from the actual recipient (and not something automated by a device), you can't be sure the message has been properly received.
- GuiA 14y ago
  iMessage has a "send read receipt" feature (deactivated by default).
  - m_eiman 14y ago
    Yes, but that doesn't mean the recipient actually read it - it means that iMessage is/has been the active application on at least one of the recipient's devices.
matthew-wegner 14y ago
iMessage gets tricky when you have multiple devices. For example, I went out of the country, but left my iPad at home (which also receives iMessages to my phone #). Because my phone wasn't data roaming, and my iPad was still on the network at home, iMessages were being delivered to the iPad. It basically meant anyone with an iPhone couldn't text me, because the text message fallback wasn't triggering. I had to find wifi with my iPhone to catch up on texts. The "dead battery" auto-responder has the same issue. What if my iPhone battery is dead, but I'm on a Mountain Lion MacBook and getting messages there?
BigBalli 14y ago
if it did you wouldn't be able to use it as an excuse...
andrewroycarter 14y ago
This doesn't make any sense at all. iMessage is now tied to my iPhone, my iPad, an iPod Touch, two iMacs, and a Macbook Air. If my iPhone's battery dies, how will Apple know that I'm not in front of another device capable of getting messages? "One potential reason that Apple wouldn’t implement this feature is that it increases user awareness of dead iPhone batteries" I don't even

31 points by treblig 14y ago

I like this, but can see some problems with iMessage on multiple devices. Ignoring that, I'd love to get a push notification at ~5% battery asking me if I'd like to put an auto-responder on.

pomajp 14y ago

I usually “know” someone’s phone has died when 2 straight messages go through as SMS, but a standard notification would be awesome.

thegrul 14y ago

It can't make any negative remarks about the battery life of any idevice, but it could be kinda nice if it said whether or not the receivers idevice is turned off.

10dpd 14y ago

A simple 'read receipt' would be much better, if its not already built in, although I suspect it is.

Alphasite_ 14y ago
It is.
treblig 14y ago
Yep, it is built in, but many (including myself) disable it. It's pretty common that I accidentally open a message, but I don't have a response / a chance to respond yet, and I don't want the person to think I'm ignoring them.
- lostlogin 14y ago
  Yeah, plausible deniability. I know a work place which demands them for email. Evil.
keeperofdakeys 14y ago
In fact, SMS already has this system in place. Naturally there are some networks/phones that don't support it, and its meaning can vary from "network received" to "phone received".

Pwnadog 14y ago

Why not turn it around and have iMessages send a "message received" notification when receiving a message? Have it display like a little checkmark next to any sent message that turns green if the other phone pings back. Just that - no read receipt like there is now, as that isn't always convenient.

nwh 14y ago
It already does, they're called read receipts.
- msh 14y ago
  it also have delivered receipts, they are turned on by default opposed to the read receipts (which need to be turned on manually).

nwh 14y ago

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The iMessage client can't keep messages in order or search them, let alone do anything complicated like that.

coob 14y ago
Messages has a search bar at the top of the main tableview. Message search is also built into the iOS spotlight screen (left of first home screen).
- nwh 14y ago
  On both systems, you can't do anything but search for the first instance of a message. It is completely and utterly useless. It also hangs and and crashes on my system if you try. ED: I tried searching for a word in Messages at five minutes ago, and the results still haven't appeared. 100% CPU usage. ED2: 10 minutes now, 2.24GB of memory use. ED3: Results showed, then client crashed at 13 minutes.
  - lostlogin 14y ago
    Hmm. Works 100% reliably for me. Wish I could say the same for my email, which works about 10% of the time on my phone.
- whalesalad 14y ago
  It's really unreliable and half assed. The parent commenter is a absolutely right. iMessage is full of bugs they need to really fix them! They have done an amazing thing though. Sidenote: apple has the ability to mine so many conversations for data. It's more intimate than twitter and I'd imagine more iMessages are sent each day than tweets. If something happens anywhere in the world Apple would theoretically be the first to know. Kinda nuts.
  - zapu 14y ago
    I wasn't aware how buggy Messages application can be until I started using it more. Weird UI glitches, messages coming out of order (?) are the two I notice often.

almostbutnot 14y ago

There are privacy concerns when you tell people about the state of another persons device. There is also the concept of sending a message saying a devices battery is dead "gosh iPhones always have dead batteries I keep getting this alert from my friends". These are good intention designs but not quite there.

rem1313 14y ago

iMessages has built in notification to the sender if the message has been delivered to the receiver, hence the status "Delivered" or (if receiver has opted-in) also Read status. I see no point in this feature, since the phone could be dead for various reasons, not just battery

k33l0r 14y ago
It would be nice if the delivered indicator could be relied upon, but it seems to report that a message has been delivered once the Apple servers have received it, not when the destination device has received it. This is especially noticeable under poor network conditions (I think I first noticed it at a music festival where even regular SMS messages struggled to get through due to network congestion).
- Terretta 14y ago
  Nope. It needs to hit a device to say Delivered. For example, if the recipient is out of 3G data coverage but can fall back to SMS, you won't get Delivered, you'll get a line across your conversation denoting a switch to Text Message and a different color bubble. (Several people I message are in marginal coverage areas several hours a day, so I get to see this in action daily.)

adrr 14y ago

But I use "my was battery dead" excuse when i am too lazy to respond.

scottbartell 14y ago
This is exactly what I was thinking!

steeve 14y ago

The point is moot. iMessage as delivery notifications. If the message is not marked as "Delivered", it means the other phone didn't get it. But it can be spotty at times with poor data connection.

hartleybrody 14y ago
Agreed. Whether it's "I don't have service" or "My battery is dead," there are a number of conditions that keep a recipient from seeing a message right away, all of which are (usually) temporary. Relying on "delivered" takes care of all of those situations, and is much more elegant in the UI than adding an "auto responder" message.
gpmcadam 14y ago
Does 'Delivered' show up when the message is received by another iOS device? e.g. I often leave my iPad at home but still connected to iMessage, and if that receives the messages my iPhone doesn't, wouldn't this give a false impression of delivery to the sender?
- josho 14y ago
  iMessage's are sent to all of your devices. I have iMessage on my mac, iPhone & iPad. All 3 devices receive messages sent to me. That's true even if one of the device is turned off for some period of time. Apple, did seem to go through some growing pains where this didn't always work as above. To answer your other question the delivered flag is set if any of your devices receives the message.

turutu 14y ago

Many XMPP clients support message delivery receipts. Maybe there is also one for iOS.

m_eiman 14y ago

The problem hasn't got anything to do with delivery notifications or auto-responders: if you need an answer right away you must use a synchronous form of communication, e.g. voice call. iMessage, SMS, email et al are async by design. Until you hear or see an ack that's from the actual recipient (and not something automated by a device), you can't be sure the message has been properly received.

GuiA 14y ago
iMessage has a "send read receipt" feature (deactivated by default).
- m_eiman 14y ago
  Yes, but that doesn't mean the recipient actually read it - it means that iMessage is/has been the active application on at least one of the recipient's devices.

matthew-wegner 14y ago

iMessage gets tricky when you have multiple devices. For example, I went out of the country, but left my iPad at home (which also receives iMessages to my phone #). Because my phone wasn't data roaming, and my iPad was still on the network at home, iMessages were being delivered to the iPad. It basically meant anyone with an iPhone couldn't text me, because the text message fallback wasn't triggering. I had to find wifi with my iPhone to catch up on texts. The "dead battery" auto-responder has the same issue. What if my iPhone battery is dead, but I'm on a Mountain Lion MacBook and getting messages there?

BigBalli 14y ago

if it did you wouldn't be able to use it as an excuse...

andrewroycarter 14y ago

This doesn't make any sense at all. iMessage is now tied to my iPhone, my iPad, an iPod Touch, two iMacs, and a Macbook Air. If my iPhone's battery dies, how will Apple know that I'm not in front of another device capable of getting messages? "One potential reason that Apple wouldn’t implement this feature is that it increases user awareness of dead iPhone batteries" I don't even