Messaging Experiment, Day 1: The time I shut off iMessage and SMS

It’s safe to say I’m an Apple fan — my entire professional career is built on and because of its platforms and devices. But, after years of troubleshooting iMessage and using its competitors, I firmly believe it’s the worst messaging app on the market, and I think there’s a decent argument to make that it’s one of the worst products Apple has ever made.

I recently got fed up with it, so I decided to try shutting off iMessage and its SMS fallback. I’m going to rely entirely other messaging apps and documenting the experiment, whether it succeeds and I can live without iMessage and SMS, or I eventually have to enable them again.

Context and setup

I’d prefer to save the details and discussion of my distaste for iMessage for another time. But since I know some will ask, here’s a summary: from a product standpoint, I think iMessage has always and still woefully misses the mark on what a messaging app should be and offer as a fundamentally social app. From a technical standpoint, it’s equally terrible — from the ability to add multiple addresses and enable them on one device or another so you never know whether your recipient will see your messages, to the rampant splitting of discussion threads for no reason, to messages inexplicably being undeliverable or not delivered for days at a time.

To get ready, I started letting my closest friends and family know that I’m trying this, but I spared them the explanation. Most of them don’t care about this stuff anyway, and they already use a bunch of different apps to talk to people. I gave them a list of alternatives I use, including Facebook Messenger, Line, Telegram, Twitter DM, GroupMe, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and of course WhatsApp. Since I can never have enough apps, I also mentioned I’m up for trying others.

I also researched how to shut off iMessage and SMS. It’s actually quite simple.

Day 1

Tuesday, May 10: I flipped the switch. Deregistering my devices from iMessage was pretty quick and painless thanks to Apple’s simple instructions (bookmark that for friends and family who switch from iOS to Android, or if you also decide to venture beyond iMessage). As for SMS, it was a simple call to Verizon. I asked, but no you can’t do it online. You have to call, but for me it was an easy, fast process with no fuss, no retention attempts or up-selling.

Immediately after, I tested iMessage with a couple friends, and my account did indeed appear as deregistered, and any messages attempted bounced. I wasn’t worried about SMS, as I have previously had to shut it off on other carriers.

So far, so good

I was surprised to find how many of my friends already have Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, Line, and/or Snapchat installed (generally, in order of appearance), and they batted no eyelashes at switching to something else. Jessi already uses Facebook Messenger and Snapchat. A couple of friends seemed taken aback that I would try to abandon iMessage, and profess to have almost nothing else installed. Apparently, they chat with people over iMessage, SMS, or not at all. One has fallen back to Twitter DMs (yet another feature Twitter has only recently graced with not much more than mild attention).

Overall though, the transition has had less friction and fewer speed bumps than I expected. I’ve always had friends who prefer one of these and even other apps over Messages, so I’ve had them installed, many for years, and readily available in a folder on my first home screen. So far, so good.