Please explain This iMessage Quirk

May 6, 2018 12:26 PM

I'm having a text conversation with another iPhone user. I see, by the icon, that they're composing....then the composition icon disappears (which I believe means their composition field was cleared). Then, like 10 secs later, a text arrives fully formed. This happens with about 1/3 of my iOs correspondents (and it's always that same 10 sec gap). Any idea what they're doing?

Is it that Apple at some point changed the conditions necessary to trigger the "composing" icon on the recipient's end?

posted by Quisp Lover to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

I see this all the time. My assumption is that they are typing/inputting, and then they are proofreading (and that the composition icon means there is input, not that there is content in the field), and then they are sending. For me the gap is shorter, like 3-4 sec, but I observe the same thing.
posted by jessamyn at 12:43 PM on May 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: You have faster-proofing friends?
posted by Quisp Lover at 12:47 PM on May 6, 2018

Best answer: According to Business Insider though, my assumptions may not be correct.
posted by jessamyn at 12:47 PM on May 6, 2018

Response by poster: Good find, thanks. Looks like another example of Apple AI being just clever enough to confuse but not clever enough to be transparent.
posted by Quisp Lover at 12:51 PM on May 6, 2018

I had always assumed that they were done typing and had hit "send," but the message just hadn't gotten to my phone yet. According to my friend, when I upgraded from an iPhone 6 to an 8, the gap got smaller, so I figured the phone was faster.
posted by Weeping_angel at 12:58 PM on May 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

No evidence but I had always figured that there was some bug that if you left text in the field too long it would eventually be “ignored” and the 3 dots go away (say I accidentally hit some characters and leave them in the field but never intend to send that message). With the longer messages I figure that the sender was typing too long so they just put the whole message I to the “accident” category and that’s why the dots go away.
posted by raccoon409 at 1:16 PM on May 6, 2018

The same thing happens in Google hangouts, for what it's worth. It only happens with long messages though. After reading the Business Insider article, I wonder if the indicator only appears for the first 60 seconds and then goes away even if you are still typing. Clearly a bit of experimentation is needed to verify my hypothesis.
posted by Athanassiel at 1:58 PM on May 6, 2018

I get that consistently on longer messages — I don’t think it’s anything the person on the other end is doing.
posted by LizardBreath at 4:53 PM on May 6, 2018