In case you somehow missed it, Apple announced that they were releasing OS X 10.8 “Mountain Lion.” The “iOS-ification” of OS X continues in 10.8. One particular iOS-inspired feature that is brought “back to the Mac” is iMessage in the form of an app called Messages.¹ Many, including yours truly, had been clamoring for this since iMessage’s advent in iOS 5. In turn, I was quite excited to hear that Apple released a free beta version of Messages for immediate download. Immediately, I began testing it out with some friends, and we were quick to find that some critical issues remain with the iMessage system, not just Messages for OS X.

“Mac keeps the conversation going.” — sometimes

According to Apple themselves, Messages is supposed to keep the conversation going. “And you can start a conversation on your Mac and pick it up on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.” This is true but with a condition.

First, let’s take a look at how the iMessage system works. On an iPhone, you can receive iMessages with your phone number. You can also set it up to receive at an email address of your choosing. Thus, someone can iMessage your phone number or your email address. If someone sends one message your phone number and another to your email address, they will show up as different conversations in Messages.app on your iPhone.

If this were isolated to the iPhone, it would not be an important issue. Rarely do you need to reference past conversations on your phone. However, this does not just affect iPhones but also iPads and now OS X. On the iPad and in OS X, you can only receive iMessages at an email address. See where this is going? You can only pick up conversations that are on your email address. Someone iMessages you on your phone, to your phone number, while you’re on your Mac and you want to continue the conversation — too bad. If you send them a message from your Mac, it will show up in a different conversation on their phone. If you reply to them from your phone, it won’t show up on your Mac. Not everyone will know your phone number, and not everyone will know your email address associated with iMessage.

All your messages, everywhere

In my opinion, this is a problem Apple has to solve. With iCloud at the center of their product line, the ability to have all your data everywhere has been their main marketing idea. Apple needs to find a way to unify iMessages, whether sent to a phone number or email address. To me, this seems simple enough, as iMessage on any device is tied to an Apple ID. Why couldn’t they just unify the conversations? It wouldn’t matter where the message was sent to.

Whatever the solution, I surely hope it will be resolved by the release of Mountain Lion and iOS 5.x/6.

1. Which has a fantastic icon, by the way. [↩]