[quote=“JimWOz, post:95, topic:1523”]
a real keyboard is the only way to go.[/quote]
It is easier and faster to type on a real keyboard (that’s why I only browse forums on a phone and don’t answer posts from the phone) but seriously… an SMS is what 20 characters long? 50 tops.
Jane Bring milk home
John Full cream or skim?
Jane Soy
John Really?
Jane Buy some fat milk for you
john ok…
Looks like we all use SMS for different things. There is no way I would accept a request to buy soy milk via text.
I do find people using it more and more for business communication, and iMessage seems to encourage this. I am lead by the youngsters in my life on this too; they seem to use it for everything.
SMS = A gazillion acronyms, mangled spelling, and emoticons.
I’d sure use a few of them in response to the soy milk pick up too ! 
I first truly appreciated SMS value when a 20yo told me a few years ago that it was how you found your mates in a venue with a live band blasting away. “where the F#$k are you” - “I’m down the front left near the speakers” - try getting that message out any other way, - like without letting off a flare, firing your revolver into the air, etc.
[quote=“JimWOz, post:98, topic:1523”]
SMS = A gazillion acronyms, mangled spelling, and emoticons.
[/quote]Ah yes, those were the days. That I hope we never see again.
Me as well… I tend to leave my phone somewhere and use my iPad or Mac and SMS/iMessage away. Text forwarding and iMessage are in my opinion two of the best things Apple have done in the past couple of years.
I have very long conversations over SMS or iMessage all the time with family members, friends etc. Very handy to be able to do it from the Mac or iPad.
Maybe for consistency they should have called iMessage LMS 
I do too because, unlike a phone conversation, iMessage is completely private one-to-one communication.
Here’s a thought for those (Geoff, I’m lookin at you) who have unlimited SMS and so don’t use iMessage… Keep in mind not everyone has what you have and its cheaper to use a bit of data for those of us who are financially unable to afford those big plans, and thus may have to be paying 29c or similar every time they have to reply to you.
I don’t have many friends without iPhone anymore, and I’ve told them about this issue… And without exception, those who had not activated it, have now done so. I only use SMS when I absolutely have to.
So, in your example above, if Jane doesnt have unlimited SMS, its just cost her 3x29c just to get messages to John who’s being a toad and not activating his iMessage.
If I open up messages and type a new message and it’s green, just a little part of me looks down my nose at the recipient. 
And as for people that want to contact me using Whatsapp… 
Having said that my plan has unlimited (or in Vodafone speak “infinite”) SMS/Calls so there’s no real cost difference to me. Sending and receiving messages from any of my devices is a big advantage to iMessage, as are group messages and delivery receipts.
OK… assuming I was to activate iMessage how do I stop messages popping up on my iPad and my Macbook?
Just don’t sign into iMessage on both?
Or, if you want iMessage but not SMS just don’t have SMS forwarding turned on on your iPhone.
Don’t do it if you really don’t want to. I’m sure your contacts would say something if it really bothered them!
I was interested in the beginning but have not yet found a need/use. iMac, MacBook and iPad are all shared devices in our house
I’m on the lovers side. One of the biggest things I missed on my Surface Pro 3 was iMessage.
iMessage lover here too. Especially love being able to continue the conversation from whichever device happens to be closest.
The only thing I dislike (and it’s a very minor complete first world problem) is when you don’t use a device for a while, and all the messages come in.
For example - I was away for a week and had my iPhone and iPad with me but left my MBA at home turned off.
Came home and my Mac mini (which is always on) was up to date with messages, but switched the MBA on and ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding
It doesnt cost anything to start out being thoughtful, and just do it. Why wait til the complaints come in?
In the good old days of OSX there was plugins that allowed you to send/receive SMS from your bluetooth enabled phone (I recall setting this up for my wife on her phones in the long ago times times BK (Before Kids)). Sure it was only a popup, no history and you were limited to 160 characters… but it was magic!!
iMessages when it was started was also magical and the extension to include SMS’s forwarding made it that much better… until you’re not on a Mac. It would be wonderful if iMessages got cross platform support so it could work on Windows. Even if it was limited to iMessages only through a web interface that would give me about 90% of the functionality (since most people I know have iPhones).
For someone who sits in front of a computer all day long it would be very nice if I could type my messages without having to pull out my phone…
Of course an industry standard online messaging protocol would also solve that problem… except that I can’t see that happening for lots of reasons.
Little green boxes, eww.
Why is it those little green boxes feel “lesser” than the blue ones? Especially in Australia with unlimited SMS for most people?? We have all been well conditioned.