Apple releases tool to fix iMessage purgatory
Apple has finally released a tool that fixes the so-called iMessage purgatory. When former iPhone owners switched to a new smart phone, iMessage got confused. Rather than recognize that friends could no longer send that person iMessages, Apple's system would sometimes launch the message into the deeper digital beyond, never to be seen again.聽
Apple's new two-step Deregister iMessage tool ends the complications related to former iOS users getting messages sent from an iPhone on their new device.
Previously, users who didn鈥檛 deactivate iMessages before moving their SIM card from an iPhone to an Android, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone device wouldn鈥檛 receive messages sent by iPhone users. The iMessages would continue to be sent to Apple's messaging servers and not to the SIM number. Until now,聽Apple鈥檚 only suggestions have been to remind customers to deactivate iMessages before changing devices and tell customers to put the SIM card back into the old iPhone and聽deactivate聽iMessages. But those suggestions didn't work for people who had already changed phones and gotten rid of their iPhone.
Now, according to , users聽type in their phone number and get聽a code sent to the new phone. The code will deactivate iMessages and allow a users' new device to receive messages from an iPhone.聽
The iMessage problem has been around for a while and is the subject of a in California. In May, former iPhone users claimed that Apple failed to disclose that switching to another device could disrupt receiving messages.
