Apple releases tool to disable iMessage for former iPhone owners

By -

Apple releases tool to disable iMessage for former iPhone owners
New option helps former iPhone users remove their phone numbers from Apple's messaging system to fix a vanishing text message issue.

Apple's instruction page for deregistering iPhones from the iMessage system.
Screenshot by Steven Musil
Customers who switched away from the iPhones have always had one nagging problem: iMessage. Now, Apple has an app for that.

Apple quietly introduced a new tool in the last couple of days that solves one of the biggest headaches former iPhone owners have: lost messages.

The problem begins when iPhone users sign up for iMessage in the first place. The service, which Apple introduced in 2011, helps iPhone users communicate with one another over data networks and Wi-Fi, instead of using text messages on cellular networks. To do this, Apple keeps track of a user's phone number so that when another iPhone user tries to send a message, it can shift to iMessage instead.

What happens if users no longer own an iPhone? Until now, they had to turn off iMessage on their old phone before turning on a shiny new Android or Windows Phone device (or BlackBerry, if that's your thing). Some users, however, have said turning off iMessage doesn't always solve the problem.

Unhappy users former iPhone owners have sued the tech titan over the issue, complaining they fell into a void where iMessage texts do not travel. Worse, the sender usually thinks the message was delivered even though it never was.

Apple's new tool includes step-by-step instructions for de-registering iPhones still in the possession of their former users. And for those who longer have their iPhone, the page includes an option for typing in their phone number and receiving a confirmation code that can be entered to confirm their choice.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Create a Yoga Goddess Illustration in Adobe Illustrator

By -
Image
As the music begins to play, a soft breeze fills the space with the undeniable smell of magnolia blossoms. She gracefully enters and begins a “tree pose” with her hands in Namaste form. Our female figure is inspired by the Indian culture for its gorgeous use of color and the grace of its yoga formations. I hope you’ll enjoy the journey as we retrace, step by step to enlightenment.  1. Becoming Flesh and Blood Step 1 Our first step will be to bring in our sketch. I've scanned her in at 300 dpi to catch as much of the detail as possible. I'm not as picky about my choice of initial drawing tools, and this particular project was completed with a mechanical pencil. We'll be working with a clean line quality from Adobe Photoshop and now we can begin to work. I'm working in Adobe Illustrator at a size of 8.5 x 11 inches for this specific project. When I'm ready to start my layers, I'll label my first layer as "Sketch" and lock the layer to make su...
Read more

How to Create an Icon Set using Adobe Photoshop

By -
Image
In this tutorial, we are going to design a set of icons in Adobe Photoshop. An icon set needs to have the same background and theme. For learning purposes, we are going to design a sun icon, an ice flake icon, and an RSS icon. Let's get started. 1. Preparing the Canvas Step 1 Start by making a new file with size 350 px × 350 px . Click the small box next to the  Background Contents  option to change the new canvas color. Step 2 In the Color Picker dialog box, select grey ( #e0e0e2 ) for the canvas background color. Step 3 It is always a good idea to keep your work structured from the start. Make a new layer group and name it  sun . This is where we will place all layers used in the sun icon. 2. Designing the Icon Base Step 1 Use the  Rounded Rectangle Tool  to draw a rectangle with size  83 px × 64 px and  8 px  radius. To get accurate results, use the  Properties  panel. In this panel, you can simply enter the exact siz...
Read more

Android Essentials: Using the Contact Picker

By -
Image
This tutorial will not only show you how to launch the contact picker and get results, but also how to use those results in Android SDK 2.0 and above. Getting Started This tutorial will start out simple, but then we’ll get in to some of the technical details of using Contacts with the ContactsContract class, which was introduced in API Level 5. Make sure you have your Android development environment installed and configured correctly. You’re free to build upon any application you have, start a new one from scratch, or follow along using the InviteActivity code in our open source project . We’ll then be adding functionality to allow a user to choose one of their existing contacts and send a canned message to them. We’re going to dive right in, so have all of your code and tools ready. Finally, make sure your device or emulator has some contacts configured (with names and emails) within the Contacts application. Step 1: Creating Your Layout There are two essential form control...
Read more