Devir Kahan

I HAVE HAD THE PLEASURE of beta testing iOS 5 for a few months now. Today, I’d like to talk about iMessages in particular.

Those that have my phone number know that I’m not exactly the best at returning text messages. Phone calls are a different story - hardly ever use them. But when it comes to texts, I only reply if I deem it truly necessary. I’m rarely ever one to reply “Ok”, and I suppose that I often times simply just don’t reply if I’m not in the mood.

Long story short, I’m not a huge texting kind of a guy. Sure, I do it rather often, but I in no way reply to even close to every text I receive. I’d rather talk via Twitter (although most of my friends are not on Twitter), email, or in person. Typing on a full keyboard, or using, you know, my actual mouth, is far easier.

iMessages was quite a curveball for me.

So here’s the deal with iMessages and me.

ON THE ONE HAND, I actually enjoy iMessages far more than texting. It feels a lot more like an IM chat on an actual computer, what with read receipts, typing bubbles, and all. Plus I like the blue color far more than the green. And boy is it one heck of a lot faster. Couldn’t tell you why, but those messages send damn near instantly. iMessaging just feels much faster than plain old texting (or SMS, as you might say).

On the other hand, I am now far less likely, even, to reply to regular texts. Once I got the taste of how messaging should be on a phone, I can hardly go back. Sorry, but I can’t help it. Oh, I’ll still text from time to time, but as most of my family have iPhones (I actually just convinced my father, for one - a long time Blackberry user - to get one), and many of my friends do as well, I am quite sure most of the messaging that I will partake in on my iPhone will be in iMessages.

NOW SIRI, that’s a whole other story. Boy would that make things even better for me. But alas, I am not even close to eligible for an upgrade from my iPhone 4 to the 4S. I’ll see if I can try to pull some shenanigans, but I am not too hopeful.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? I’m actually trying a little experiment for the next short while and am turning the comments on. We shall see how it goes. So go ahead and leave your, constructive, thoughts below.