Answers to a question and another question

Question

Have just started using chat beta app for imessaging from my mac to iphones.
a lot of people have had issues syncing properly between devices, which i had as well.
by syncing i mean:
at the moment on my iphone all messages from 'dave' are in a single conversation. if dave was to imessage me from his mac, his message would show in a different conversation because its come from his email address instead of his phone number. even if i add his email address to his contact it will still show in different conversation. which is very annoying because i want all my conversations with dave to be unified regardless of where they were sent from.
some people have suggested that the answer is to change the caller ID for imessage from your phone no to your email address.
my problem with this is that all your imessages from your iphone to other iphones will show up as your email address instead of your phone number on the recipients phone, which i don't want and im sure a lot of people wouldn't want.
anyway in case people are looking for a solution (as i was for ages) i came across a possible one which seems to work:
delete all existing conversations from that person on both your phone and reciepients phone. from then onwards all messages sent between those 2 people will show in same conversation rather then 2 different ones regardless of where they are sent from.
i have tried this with wifes phone and after deleting existing conversation on both our phones, all messages i sent her regardless of wether from my iphone or mac all shows in same conversation.
anyway thats my answer to a possible problem, i also have a question:
what is the future of messages beta? its a excellent idea, however makes no sense at all if it doesn't sync PROPERLY across all your devices which at the moment it doesn't. surely apple can identify you purely from your apple id, so i can't see why they can't get imessages to sync fully, so all imesseges sent to me and those i send as well all show up on both my phone and on mac.

Answer 1

Hi,
Currently Mesages Beta is storing your Messages from any source in two places.
By default it is saving iChat style transcripts in Your Home Folder/Documents/iChats (this is the default place for the ichats folder)
It is also storing, at least iMessages, in Your Home Folder/Library/Messages in the form of a data base.
It seems to be this data base that show you the "History" of the contact you is chatting with you.
(This can only be accessed by using the Finder's Go Menu and holding the ALT key to be able to select the Library)
It also seems unclear as to whether it is the Address Book details or something at the Apple Server end that links Phone Numbers with IDs that allows the linking and syncing of the two forms of ID.
The fact that you have found that clearing all the History of all IDs conversations allows better syncing is interesting.
As I see it several things need to be considered
Not only iMessages from Phone Numbers and Apple IDs need to be resolved for syncing but also whether people want the iChat type Buddy list chats to also be collated in that process.
If iMessages are kept separate from the older iChat style chats in terms of syncing chats on the Mac end there is still the issue of whether Jabber and AIM Chats should be "synced" or collated for the "History" view.
As I have several Buddies with History at least on AIM chats going back to 2004 and later jabber Chats with some of those it would make for a very long scroll back.
There would appear to be a syncing issue with iMessages regarding the Name or Phone number that needs to just work and not need all chats to be closed and cleared to then sync  (or if closed/deleted a way of getting one you want to keep back or stored for review)
A way of deciding what and how much "History" is called back for a Buddy or contact.
The fact that all Saved Chat for a Buddy will show up does mean you have a useful search tool for certain things.
However I rarely use Saved Chats for much more than that after about 6 months.
Spotlight would tend to find it anyway (in the current Storage place)
If History/Archives of chat are going to be kept in the Library then Spotlight will not be able to Search them.
Messages will be in Mountain Lion.
And for that we will have to wait.
9:23 PM      Thursday; May 17, 2012
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