A U.S. District judge has decided that Apple will have to face a US federal lawsuit over complaints that it prevented users from receiving text messages after switching from iPhone to Android, according to a report from Reuters.
The lawsuit, which is seeking class-action status, claims that Apple interfered with the plaintiff’s Verizon wireless service by not informing customers that switching to an Android device could interfere with sending and receiving messages.
The problem exists with how Apple’s messaging app handles the switch from its iPhone to iPhone iMessaging platform to traditional SMS text messages when contacts switch to new devices. Apple automatically defaults to the less expensive iMessage to save users from paying for text messages, but if a contact happens to switch to another platform even temporarily— Android for example— the app sometimes does not automatically recognize and switch back to text messages leaving users on either end unaware that messages aren’t getting through.
Apple reportedly responded to the lawsuit in court filings noting that the “technology simply does not function as plaintiff subjectively believes it should.”
In court papers, Apple said it never claimed that its iMessage service and Messages application, which ran with iOS 5, would recognize when iPhone users switched to rival devices.
“Apple takes customer satisfaction extremely seriously, but the law does not provide a remedy when, as here, technology simply does not function as plaintiff subjectively believes it should,” the Cupertino, California-based company said.
The news comes just as Apple this week introduced a new tool that allows users to easily deregister their phone number from iMessage to correct the potential issue with undelivered messages.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Sad that they’ve become such a huge target. Even sadder is that it seems they’ll never get a fair trial considering the same Judge seems to be the go to expert for these bs cases. Yes, the issue is annoying to people switching over, but it was easily fixed by turning off iMessage before removing the SIM card and transferring it to the new non-iOS device and there were other ways to go around it. Just because people are money hungry and Apple is a nice target – frivolous lawsuits like this are constantly being put through. Remember the guy who sued them over his addiction to pornography? Another useless court case.
It’s not easily fixed. I switched to a nexus 5 back in April, and I did turn off iMessage on all of my devices before switching. I couldn’t receive SMS from iPhone users for about 2 months.
I’ve heard varying things. Most of it seemed to mention that it was easily fixed in many cases by doing that. It certainly sucks that it wasn’t the case for you. I do think it was an issue and should have been fixed long ago – I just don’t know if legal action is the way to go. How did you get it working?
Eventually it just started working. Who’s to say that people haven’t lost out on work opportunities or something of an important nature because of missing text messages, though?
Class action suits wont pay big money to individuals, but they are a way of making companies take things seriously. I’d bet it’s not coincidence that the iMessage deregistration tool came out this week.
I have an easy solution: Don’t buy Android crap :D
And yet Miroslav, this is an Apple problem, not an Android problem, but keep up that Android bashing, you must be a real winner.
And what happens if the iPhone is lost/stolen? You can get a replacement SIM card for cheap/free, but maybe a person just don’t have the money to pay for a new iPhone outright as they wouldn’t be upgrade eligible. They’d resort to any cheap (possibly not a smart) phone.
It’d be cool if Messages had an automatic drop-to-sms feature when it can’t confirm delivery (to the device) of an iMessage. But that’s not how it works, and if someone sends an iMessage, then you can’t receive it when you’re offline or have switched to another platform. Period. At least not while your phone number is still registered with iMessage.
The message sender can easily switch the way they’re sending manually, making the message go out SMS instead of iMessage.
It does have an automatic send via SMS feature. It’s under the Messages settings on the iPhone. But it usually has to be turned on.
This lawsuit is bogus though as Apple has many places saying how to remove phones from iMessage. Even telling some people just to call into AppleCare for them to take care of it.
I turned imessage off before I switched, and had to deal with apple reps on the phone for over a month with no fix. Apple’s solutions did not work, and it took over 2 months to get it fixed.
You also don’t seem to understand that it was nearly a year before apple even acknowledged that this was an issue and put those instructions up.
Apple screwed up, and still hasn’t really come up with a good fix. It’s incredibly unacceptable.
You’re supposed to remove yourself from iMessage before you get rid of your phone. Why are you suing Apple for something you failed to do?
It doesn’t always work even if you do that.
If you do NOT know that & Apple does not tell you or carrier reps do not tell you, how would you know? Explain that. Apple barely made effort to address this & it took them almost 2-3 years to bring this tool out. People expect that it would turn into Text Messages after switching. There was never a warning on the box / Phone or a app that would automatically show you about this when setting up the phone first time about it.
Do not blame the customers when the company failed to bring a simple tool out in the start when everyone had issues. Do not blame the customers when the company failed to have a warning label or some sort of warning this would happen if you switch or have reps explain this to you in the start.
And do not blame Apple for not doing something they were not legally required to do.
@ samuelsnay
Actually they were supposed to LEGALLY advice their customers about this from the start when iMessage came out or atleast post is on their website & train their staff about it when selling a iPhone.. Where in the world do you live that a company isn’t legally responsible to tell its customers that if you switch from the iPhone while leaving your iMessager on, you won’t get any text messages.
What happens if someone was being hurt or anything harmful & you wouldn’t be able to get the messages due to this. Would you not blame the company that did not provide you the info on HOW to switch from the start?
You do talk to a bunch of Genius, …what can u expect from these funboy?
Absolutely wrong. I have been through this with several people switching to Android. In some cases, it never releases their number. I have been through every proposed option (except this new tool) and it does not release the number. Why don’t YOU try it before you open your ignorant mouth! You FAILED to do that!
How about calling apple support and having the number removed like my daughter did, it takes about 10 min.
@Dimitri Kyriakis
“What happens if someone was being hurt or anything harmful & you wouldn’t be able to get the messages due to this.”
Ever heard of calling them on the phone? Or did Apple disable your phone from working too?
@mechanic50
It does not matter. You simply do not seem to understand that having this cause issues on not being able to text or receive text messages can be bad on Apple & them not notifying the customers about it in the first place.
Mechanic50, I spent over a month calling apple to try and fix this issue. Don’t pretend like your experience is the same as everyone else’s.
You’re wrong, you don’t understand what you’re talking about. I did that before I switched, I called apple several times, I waited over a month and it didn’t work. It ended up being nearly two months before I could receive texts from people with iPhones. That’s flat out unacceptable and if android did this, you’d be losing your mind demanding they are shut down.
Should have never left Apple. HEHEHEHE
This is in reality Android users complaining about not receiving messages their contacts sendt thru iMessage :P
In reality, it’s android users complaining they are not able to receive messages because Apple screwed them over.
Finally! I know a lot of people never received messages when switching over since it would default to iMessage even when trying various steps.
Boy, if I filed a lawsuit every-time an electronic device failed or did not behave in a way I “thought” it should, I would own my own island in the Bahamas filled with beautiful women right now. So many frivolous lawsuits clogging the court system costing time and money.
You don’t seem to understand the problem. If one company prevents a person from using the services of another company when you switch to the new company. That’s really bad.
I had a lot of issues when I switched to android with a lot of people not being able to contact me through texting. I could imagine it would mess with some people’s business and such.
This issue not about what happened, but that consumers were not advised this could happen.. Does a car manufacturer tell you that your car might run out of gas if you don’t fill it up? The law says we are responsible to keep good tires on our cars, and a safe vehicle. The car manufacturer has the information posted, if you look for it. If you want to read about every feature, and how to troubleshoot it, before an issue even comes up, then go ahead.. Become educated.
Wow, Apple is saying that customers shouldn’t expect to be able to receive text messages because they switched to a different service.
To someone who has to change phones regularly this is the most annoying and angering thing any company could ever perpetrate. Apple needs to own it all and own everyone. I hope they get their asses kicked in court.
If it doesnt automatically drop from the iMessage system, just contact Apple and have them manually remove it. Waiting months for it to work?!? Really lol and smh
Calling Apple tech support or relying on their so-called genius gives you sporadic advice that may be helpful.
Blaming the consumer for the failings of the product must be the Apple way, at least according to those on this site.
I have to say this attitude of defending Apple at all costs really reflects poorly on the company.
I’m very happy I left Apple behind, even though it took about a week to get my text messages.
If you’ve “left Apple behind”, then stop coming here and vomiting your ignorant, blind-Apple-hating BS on every article. No one listens to you because nothing you say is even remotely correct.
@JordanKahn can we finally get this guy banned? He doesn’t contribute anything to these comments.
The issue here is iMessage was hijacking the SMS that was meant for a Mobile Phone – not an Apple Id.
I love how people who are not experiencing the problem fail to see the problem. Here are some facts:
1. FACT:After my wife switched from Apple to Android (and followed the steps) her iPhone clients could no longer send her text messages. She is no longer registered in iMessage. Only new iPhone contacts can reach her but not existing ones.
2. To fix this each of her clients and friends would need to hold down the message that did not go through and click “Send as Text” to fix the problem.
3. This is NOT obvious. She would have to reach out to over 100 clients and friends individually to have each of them fix it.
How could anyone defend Apple in this situation? Please take off the blinders off. I have apple and like their devices but I would not defend a company who holds people hostage no matter what their products are like. It’s like blaming the victim because the accused is a superstar.
When an Apple users sends a text, they need to make sure it goes through regardless if the user is Apple, Android or a ‘switched’ users. That’s the bottom line
Any Organization doing such sort of operations is legally requires to educate and update its customers about such things, ignoring such issue can be harmful. This attitude should be change, Apple have to first train comprehensively about iPhone’s hardware and software and then transfer the same to buyers, this also shows how an organization deals with its clients. Apple or any company should notifying about such things by first hand.