Apple Working on Fix to iMessage Glitch
Apple is working on a fix for a glitch affecting iMessage, its iOS-device-to-iOS-device messaging system, according to a statement given to the tech site Re/code.
“We recently fixed a server-side iMessage bug which was causing an issue for some users, and we have an additional bug fix in a future software update,” an Apple representative told Re/code. Apple urged those still experiencing iMessage issues to contact AppleCare.
The glitch occurs when iPhone owners switch over to any other type of phone; those switchers say they can no longer receive texts from iPhones. The sender, using an iPhone, will receive a “Delivered” receipt, indicating that the message has been sent, but the message never actually reaches the intended recipient. It gets stuck in a kind of “iMessage purgatory,” as Lifehacker writer Adam Pash put it.
The issue is thought to be in the way that Apple recognizes your contacts, reading certain phone numbers as Apple device owners even after they’ve switched over to Android or Windows Phone. Instead of sending the message as an SMS and delivering it to the new phone, Apple reads the message as an iMessage, which cannot be delivered to non-Apple devices. That means the message gets stuck in Apple’s servers, and text messages aren’t getting delivered.
Though this has been an issue for many people since iMessage’s debut three years ago, Pash’s recently published complaint about the glitch raised new awareness to the bug. A class-action lawsuit was filed against Apple in California over the iMessage issue, and Business Insider has tales of woe from iPhone switchers, including from readers who say they lost jobs over unreceived messages.
Apple promises that a true solution is coming but did not provide a timeline. In the meantime: Might we suggest an alternative to costly text messaging in the first place?
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