Apple Being Sued Over Undelivered Text Messages

This isn’t good for Apple. A California woman is suing the company on the basis that once she switched from an iPhone to a Samsung Galaxy S5, she could no longer receive text messages from iPhone users. She’s hoping to get her lawsuit bumped up to class action status, and while I’m no expert on the law, the fact that so many other ex-iPhone users are making similar claims doesn’t seem to bode well.

Business Insider reported that since they’d run the initial story, they’d gotten dozens of emails from users experiencing the same issue with undelivered text messages. That number has almost definitely risen by this point.

The problem lies in Apple’s iMessage software, which functions differently from other SMS software. The issue occurs when a user switches from an iPhone to a non-iOS phone, but keeps the same phone number. When their iPhone contacts attempt to send them text messages, they get sent to their now-defunct iMessage address and just ends up in limbo.

According to an Apple customer service rep, the engineering team is currently looking for a fix. Not everyone believes that, though, and are convinced that it’s something Apple does intentionally to punish those who switch from iOS.

As with all complaints, some seem to be embellished. Some users claim that this issue almost cost them relationships due to text messages not being sent, which I find hard to believe when the call function still worked perfectly fine. That’s not to say the inability to text wouldn’t be disruptive. This is certainly an issue that Apple needs to fix ASAP, though whether or not it’s worth a lawsuit – especially a class action one – is up for the courts to decide.