iPhone 2.1 SMS Reminder Annoyances
October 6, 2008 by Josh Highland
Filed under hardware, iPhone, mac, software
There was a new feature introduced with the iPhone 2.1 firmware update that is driving me crazy and making me curse apple an my iPhone daily. I am talking about the SMS multi reminder.
The SMS multi reminder is designed to notify you with an alert if you have an unread SMS (text) message. Sounds good in theory, but trust me, it horrible in practice.
When you receive a new SMS message to your iPhone, the first few lines are displayed in what I can best describe as a pop up box. Often if the message is short, “hey I’m running late”, you see the entire message. This is where the trouble lies. If you get an SMS message and you don’t unlock the phone, open the SMS app, then open the specific SMS thread, the iPhone thinks you haven’t gotten the message, so it will remind you 5 minutes later, and 10 minutes later that you have an unread message, for a total of 3 alerts in 10 minutes for a message you might have already seen.
Example of why this is annoying:
I’m sitting here working on my blog, “PING!”, ah I have a new SMS message on my iPhone, the screen is lit up and the preview box is showing. “From TWITTER: xFLORIDAx – I look like a shaved ape”. Ok, no response needed, I set my phone down. 5 minutes later “PING!” ah! I must have a new SMS message… strange my screen isnt lit up, turn on the screen. no new SMS messages, weird. 5 minutes after that, “PING!”…. so in 10 minutes, I have been alerted 3 times for a message I have already read. ANNOYING! I don’t want to unlock my phone for every little message that is sent to me.
I understand how this could be useful for someone who gets 1-5 text message a day… I average over 200 a day. Most messages come from twitter and don’t require a response. I would disable the multi reminder if I could, but apple doesn’t allow you to change the setting for it. It’s just on, like it or not. The only way to prevent the SMS multi reminder is to disable text notifications all together, and I’m not going to do that. I like getting one and only one notification when I get a new message.
If im in a meeting, should my pocket buzz 6 times in 20 minutes to let me know I have 2 text messages? GTFO! I should only be notified two times.
I really hope that Apple allows people to turn the SMS multi reminder on and off in the next update. I can’t imagine it’s to hard to do.
I’m totally with you on this… it’s soooo annoying. I have to constantly unlock it just so it knows I’ve read my SMS.
thanks for this post. 2.1 is a failure. Right now I am typing on my iPhone and the keyboard is lagging about ten seconds behind. It was never like this for me a year ago when I first got an iPhone. And I only have about five apps installed- none of them are running. I wouldn’t really mind multiple notifications except for the fact that every other phone I have ever had uses a single beep for further SMS reminders. Let’s rally and get apple to fix this!
Tek, thanks for the comment. I wouldnt say that 2.1 is a complete failure. A lot of my apps would crash before 2.1. Im not seeing as apps crash, but i do see the keyboard lag offten.
2.2 should be good but I have heard of the keyboard lag of the multi reminder being fixed in it
I agree 100% with this… how about when you are on the west coast and a friend texts you at 4am local (7am east) and you are in bed presumably using your phone as your alarm clock and are awoken with a BEDEEP (or vibrate on the dresser) so you wearily look over to see “I so stomped you in fantasy football”, great, back to sleep and that cozy darkness and BEDEEEEEEP! again awakes you for the same stupid message and now you have to take the cognitive steps to unlock and look at the message to prevent yet another snooze wake up 5 min later. APPLE PLEASE ADDRESS THIS!
As a heavy sleeping network admin who has a lot of people depending on me getting up and dealing with stuff at 2AM, this is AWESOME and exactly what I wanted. Thanks Apple!!!
I agree with this post. This is exactly the type of feature that needs an on/off switch.
I hope the next software update is a good one b/c I’m very dissatisfied with this iPhone toy (have had it for over a year.)
Yes I agree, this is very annoying. If apple gave us the option of turning this feature on or off, that would be much better. But there is no where on the phone settings that I can turn this annoying feature off.
I cannot believe that Apple still hasn’t fixed this!!! I downloaded iphone 2.2 assuming that, of course, Apple fixed this super-annoying feature. They didn’t. Unbelievable.
I’m also very annoyed by this and it’s something Apple should fix ASAP because it drives me nuts, and I imagine from this post there are many others annoyed by it.
I initially waited a while to update to the 2.1 patch… now I can’t disable this horrid “feature”.
My friend has the developer beta of 3.0 and there is now a menu setting to disable the multi-alert.
woohoo! my prayers have been answered!
Is this fixed on 3.0?
I had to search google just to find out if there was a freakin’ way to disable this thing, and after reading this, I guess there isn’t.
Like the article says, in theory this is a good idea, but in practice, this is just awful.
My example: I get ESPN text alerts every time a team scores when the Phillies play. That way, if I’m out to dinner or doing something, I still know the score and inning, etc.
HOWEVER, when I’m WATCHING the game on tv (which is very often), I know before-hand when runs and scored, and as a result, my phone is beeping 3 times in 10 minutes for 1 run that I don’t even need to read
please tell me that 3.0 addresses and fixes this issue..
Yes, this has been fixed in the iPhone 3.0 OS. go to Settings -> Messages -> Repeat Alert
I would prefer a keystroke or something that will silence it. I like being reminded. But if I’ve read the damn message in the preview, let that be the end of it!
I recently dowloaded the smsminder on my iphone 3GS. I set up a reminder (not recurrent) and deleted it. I still get this smsminder text message every night at 10pm. I uninstalled and installed smsminder and still get the text. Do you know how I can fix this?
Thanks for your help.
Dave