Autocomplete and linking issues with gchat on apple messages

Question

So I'm having a couple related(ish) problems with apple messages and gchat/hangouts/whatever it's called these days and imessage on my laptop:
1) Gchat contacts sometimes do and sometimes don't autocomplete when i cmd+n for a new message and then start typing in the 'send to' field. this occurs irrespective of whether i try to start a jabber conversation via typing their email or via typing their name. I've noticed a couple of semi-consistent factors that seem to be impacting it, at least sometimes, but can't pinpoint anything entirely consistent:
     -It seems to be more problematic with contacts that I have their (google) email address on their contacts card in my icloud account on my actual computer/iphone (as opposed to not having them linked to a contact, and them being merely listed on my gchat friends list by virtue of being imported when i created the account)
     -It seems to be more problematic with buddies that i have had more recent contact with, so that their existing conversation is closer to the top of the messages window (and plus, even this isn't entirely consistent - sometimes it lets me type and find their jabber account even if i chatted yesterday and it's second or third on the list, other times it just returns no results in the address field, and other times (when they're a contact with email address as well as phone number) it only gives me their imessage account but their jabber doesn't show up and i have to go to my buddy list to find them)
Any thoughts? It's sometimes easier to just do cmd+n and type a friend's name even if i have an existing conversation with them relatively top to the close of the list, than manually finding them in the list or looking at the buddy list or using the search bar. cmd+n typically works at least with imessage conversations, and sometimes even with jabber accounts/gchat, so it doesn't seem like this is merely a feature that doesn't exist.
2) This might be less of a bug and more of a feature, but i'm wondering if there's a way to deactivate it. A lot of my friends have both imessages and gchat, and i have their google email and phone number on their contact card. in this case, apple messages, seemingly arbitrarily, alternates back and forth betweeen gchatting them and imessaging them in the same conversation. it doesn't always correspond to their away/available status on gchat, and even when it does correspond, i'd still prefer to be able to manually override to send an imessage even if they are available on gchat, I'd prefer to just have separate conversations going for imessage and gchat (because a lot of my friends just never look at one or the other depending on whether they are or arent near their computer, so i need to be able to control where the message goes). I do have a separate jabber conversation with John Smith from their imessage, but within the imessage conversation it still sometimes switches to jabber. It seems like this only happens for contacts that have both email and imessaage on their vcard, but i'd prefer not to delete the email address from their vcard just to resolve this issue, since the email address on contact comes in handy for purposes other than gchat. is there any workaround/way to disable this auto-switching between imessage and gchat accounts in the same conversation, while keeping contacts' email and phone number linked on their vcard?
3) Some, but not all, of my android friends show up as having imessage when i type their name to contact via gchat. sometimes it says imessages for their phone number, and sometimes instead for their gmail (or both). With respect to the issue when it happens in phone number form: i've checked their contact cards and their phone number is just listed as mobile (not iphone or anything, though i'm unsure if the category of phone number actually tells the phone whether they have imessage, or if it recognizes (in this case, incorrectly) on its own). Of course the imessage won't actually send, but it's pretty annoying (especially in light of the problem from #1). Is their any way to tell messages that this person doesn't have imessage so it stops saying they do?
Couldn't decide whether to post these separately or together, but since they may or may not be related i opted for the latter. sorry for the length. searched for all 3 and didn't find anything quite on point.
macbook pro, mid-2010, 15"
Mavericks 10.9.2
messages v8.0

Answer 1

Hi,
Re 1)
If a Buddy  (Google, AIM or Yahoo) is in the Buddy list as just the ID or Screen Name then broadly speaking they are not in your Contacts list.
As such they will not show a "Real Name".
However any Buddy can be added to the Contacts List even if you don't add a "Real Name"
This in itself can also cause issues as the Contacts app does not create what it sees as Duplicate cards.
i.e. you cannot create two cards with the name John Smith.
It is easier if the ID/Screen Name becomes the "Real Name".
I have three Macs
On each the My Card  for myself reflects the Computer it is from and those Cards are synced on my iMac.
Some of the various Jabber and AIM Screen Names are linked to the particular computers.
That means if I type "ra" as the start of my Name in the "to" spot I get this:-
First is a national breakdown service for helping out with cars (as opposed to any other breakdown)
The next is a Buddy that I have hidden.
It lists Apple ID and telephone numbers that it thinks are iMessages compatible (it thinks all numbers are valid)  liked to be G4 tower's card.
It continues listing AIM, Jabber, Yahoo and other iMessages accounts as well as the Bonjour contact details.
As you can see some at the bottom are IDs and Screen Names that are not associated with any of the Address Cards.
In these cases my name from part of the ID so "ra" picks then up.
As you can see you should get AIM, Jabber (Google), iMessages and Yahoo account indicated.
That should then lead to 2)
Once in the conversation you can use the "To" spot to change which ID you are calling and therefore effectively change which service you are using.
In this Pic I have chosen to call Myself (easy with multiple accounts)
My iMac My Card has no jabber account listed so you only see iMessages and  AIM option listed.
I can "call" my main AIM name (ralphjohnsr) from the other three Accounts linked to this Card.
From your end it may look like a random switch but in fact is most likely from an incoming change by the Buddy/Contact.
You can make the change by using the "To" spot and a drop down
The centralised messages in the chat should tell you of Changes as will the ID in the text field before typing
Re 3)
It will depend on what their Apple ID is.
Some have had @mac.com names for a long time and linked them to MobileMe than more recently iCloud.
Some linked their @me.com names form MobileMe to iCloud at the Change.
Most recently iCloud IDs have been given @iCloud.com emails from the start.
However any email can be used as an Apple ID.
The pic above has my Apple ID partially hidden for that lower  iMessages info across the center.
You may find that some people are using their Google ID as their Apple ID AND also using it as both the iMessages registered name and the Google ID  in the Messages app.
Lets explain this another way.
When iChat 1 came out Apple joined the AIM service with it (it did AIM and Bonjour  which was then called Rendezvous)
At that time Apple entered in to an agreement with AIM that any Apple Issued ID would be a valid AIM Screen Name.
At that time the Apple Service was .Mac and @mac.com IDs were being issued as paid for accounts, Trial Accounts and after while Lapsed paid for accounts.
These all worked as iChat/AIM Screen Names.
Then Apple changed to MobileMe and issued @me.com IDs
The trials only lated until you ended them and the IDs no longer worked in iChat after that as valid AIM Screen Names and nor did lapsed Paid For accounts.
More recently Apple have stopped a paid for Service and moved to iCloud.
At the change you could link Any Apple ID to iCloud and you got an @me.com ID from the iCloud server (it could be the same as the on MobileMe but did seem to be "separate").
Later these became @iCloud.com IDs  (Some people have both under iCloud and in some cases linking @mac.com names to MobileMe @me.com accounts for email still continues).
To be clear you could link Any existing email ID to iCloud such as  Google ID.
But broadly I am speaking of gaining various Apple Issued IDs over time that may or may not be linked to one account.
These Apple Issued IDs works as Valid AIM Screen Names in Messages. (the iCloud issued ones don't work in iChat 5 or earlier though).
I linked an external to Apple dial-up Email that has been my long time Apple ID to iCloud and got an @me.com ID at first and later an @icloud.com one as well.
I can use these two separately in Messages as Valid AIM names.
Someone using their Google ID as their Apple ID could use it as the iMessages registered Name AND as the GoogleTalk/Jabber entry as well.
This might explain why it looks like they are swapping about.
There can be one other explanation and that is dependent on where they are logged in.
Obviously a GoogleTalk user can log in to the Google web Mail page and use Talk there.
Although I don't use Google+ I presume there is a similar web page to chat from there.
This would limit them to being "On Google" rather than iMessages when they sent a messages to you.
Re GoogleTalk
Obviously Android is Google.
The Account settings at Google incudes the "products" you can link and use from your Account.
Previously with a Google Mail Account that included enabling "Talk" which then allowed you to chat from the Web Mail Page login (or your chosen Jabber able app)
Now Google use Google+ and this seems to give you automatic access to "Talk"  to the extent it is no longer something you have to Activate.
I am wondering if using a Android phone is linked to having a Google+ account and that the phone number can be part of that ID set up (similar to iMessages and iPhone Numbers).
If it does it would then depend if the phone is linked to both the Number and the Google ID as to what they can login as in certain situations.
I am not sure I have covered everything but I think I have covered most things.
From what you post I am not sure that there is an issue or not although I have posted what is normal and expected I think there are some fringe things that are an issue.
9:46 pm      Tuesday; April 15, 2014
​  iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad