Everyone by now have upgraded to the latest release of iOS. If you haven’t, here is a good link on how to go about upgrading your iOS device.
One of the key features of iOS 5 is iMessage, which is basically instant messaging for iOS devices (similar to but way better than BlackBerry Messaging). It promise to sync your conversation between your iOS devices in a way that conversation started on your iPhone can be continued on your iPad and so on and so forth. If you’re an Apple fanboy like me and currently owns an iPad and an iPhone, this feature of iMessage is quite handy.
But how do you set-up iMessage to sync across your iOS devices? Easy, you just need to make sure that your Apple ID is your Caller ID in all devices you want to sync. To do this, just go to Settings>Messages.
This set-up is most important for iPhone users since the default Caller ID is your mobile number. Once you changed your Caller ID, end all iMessage conversation. Any iMessage sent to your Caller ID moving forward will be synced across iOS Devices with the same ID.
If you see a conversation not syncing across your devices, this can only mean that the message was sent thru a different ID (i.e. sent to your mobile number). To resolve it, just clear the message and reply with a new conversation. This will prompt your iPhone to trash old conversation (via mobile number) and initiate a new one using your synced Caller ID.
The solution is quite brute but it beats registering/announcing your PIN every time you change your device. I do hope Apple streamline this process in the next iOS update.
For now, let the conversation flowing in iMessage 🙂
A Daily Dose of iDarwin 
Thanks a lot. I spent thirty minutes on the phone with a rep who told me it wasn’t possible but after more prying, he told me that he just didn’t know. The key part really is the caller ID.
The “caller ID” setting isnt present on my ipad or iphone…..what now?
“J” – You need to click on Settings>Messages>Receive At. There you can register additional email ID to which you want to receive your iMessages. Upon registering additional email IDs, the option on the “caller ID” will be available, similar to the screen shot above.
I hope this helps 🙂
caution: by setting the callerID to your email adress you might run into a problem when abroad. you won’t receive text, when sent as a reply to your email-ID. and your text won’t go out, if unknowingly sent to a email-ID. correct?
If you have data off (so plan only on using SMS, not 3g/wifi iMessages), I believe the app will revert to SMS and use your phone number automatically. My girlfriend works in an area with poor 3G reception and sometimes when I text her it switches back to green (SMS) messages to ensure delivery. This happens before I send a message, too.
I think this is what would happen when you are abroad with data turned off.
Thanks for this info. I too was getting frustrated with this. Can’t believe Apple tout this as a messaging revolution, yet you can’t set the bloody thing up easily. Crazy.
If your ID is set as your email and you don’t have a network connection (ie wifi or 2g/3g/EDGE/gprs etc), the phone is clever enough to change back to SMS automatically. Try it by switching off ‘Network Data’ – it changes conversation from blue to green even before you start typing.
As for receiving – chances are if icloud/apple servers doesnt detect a delivered message response then it’ll send it as an sms automatically.
Hil thanks for this useful info. But my problem is I cannot add my emai alias from iCloud, the same email address I use everyday and right noe here.
The iOS replies me with an error trying to verify my address.
Do you know why?
Thanks in advance
So, there’s no way to integrate a pre-existing conversation?
as far as I know, there’s none.
Thanks for the info. One thing that I am not clear on is if I change my Caller ID to my Apple ID, do I have to notify my friends that use iMessage not to send messages to my mobile number, but to my Apple ID instead? In other words, if they don’t know I’ve made this change and they just text me as usual, will I receive the message on my mobile phone, but not on my other devices? Seems confusing, but maybe it’s just me.
Thank you.
You can do that, or delete your existing conversation and initiate a new one—which will always be sent thru your preferred caller ID.
i still don’t see the caller id option. i have ios 6. could that be why? I have the You Can be reached by iMessage at: option and under that is start a new conversation from…
help!
Good day! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading through this post reminds me of my old room mate!
He always kept talking about this. I will forward this
page to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thanks for sharing!
My contacts aren’t sinking…..between iPad and iPhone….ideas? Thanks!