iMessage in the Cloud

iOS 11 will allow users to store iMessage messages in iCloud. It finally makes it possible to start an iPhone or iPad fresh, don’t restore a backup, and still have access to your chat history. It even syncs deletions and read status (?) and is completely secure and respects your privacy. Pretty nifty.One caveat though: iMessage cloud syncing uses your iCloud Storage. Since Apple only gives users 5GB, and iMessage is the one thing that fills iPhones up faster than photos, I wonder how many regular users are really going to be able enjoy this new feature to its fullest potential.

Imagine a user upgrading to iOS 11. If they have 5GB of default iCloud Storage it’s probably already used up by their iCloud backup (that includes photos and messages). So no room available to start syncing.

Even worse, if they start with a new blank iPhone, their 5GB basically gives them a choice: use iCloud Photo Library, iMessage sync or backup your device. And opposite to the you can have it fast, cheap or good mantra, even only picking two of these options isn’t really an option. So most users don’t get to enjoy the full feature set of iCloud.

Apple offers an easy solution: pay 99ct a month, get 50GB of storage and enjoy iCloud (and arguably iOS) at its fullest. It gives you a good backup strategy, easy syncing of your photos, solves the limited storage problem of your iPhone with Optimisation, and will soon include iMessage, Health,… and be easily shareable across Family members.

But most people I know don’t or won’t pay. Those nagging _limited storage-_popups and red notification dots that Apple shows in Settings.app – reminding them their backup hasn’t run – are often not convincing them to update. Often it does the opposite: they are frustrated their already expensive device is asking them to pay even more.

The only scenario I’ve seen people pay are similar to this one: they want an easy way to sync their photos. I show them my own iPhone and iPad syncing 50000+ photos easily. And they warily go for the 99ct plan.

If Apple really wants to get people to use iCloud, they should replace the 5GB for free plan with a 3 month trial of the 50GB plan. It gives people all the features of iCloud right out of the box with realistic limits. If they like it, they’ll pay. If they don’t, they won’t. And if they don’t, the difference between 5GB and no storage is negligible.

But I’d bet most people will happily pay a buck a month for what iCloud offers them. They just need the get the chance to try it out first.

But I digress: iMessage cloud syncing is a great feature I’m looking forward to!