Apple Ordered To Face Lawsuit Over Missing Text Messages For Users Who Switched To Android

A federal judge has ordered Apple to face a plaintiff in court over claims that the company penalized users for switching away from its iMessage service. Reuters

Apple will have to face a U.S. federal lawsuit, which claims that the Cupertino, California firm failed to notify customers that switching away from iOS and iMessage could prevent them from receiving text messages from other iPhone users. The case centers on the claims brought forth by plaintiff Adrienne Moore in May, who alleges that Apple’s iMessage “penalized” device owners who chose to switch to another platform such as Google’s Android.


"Plaintiff does not have to allege an absolute right to receive every text message in order to allege that Apple's intentional acts have caused an actual breach or disruption of the contractual relationship," Judge Lucy H. Koh wrote, according to Reuters.

The court order came after Apple released a webpage to deregister phone numbers tied to the iMessage service. The page first provides users instructions to turn off iMessage if they happen to have their old iPhone available. But for those without access to the previous iPhone, the company allows users to unregister from the service through a tool on the site.

Prior to the tool’s release, some users that switched away from the iPhone found that they weren’t receiving messages from other iPhone users. This was due to the way that iMessage works: By associating a phone number with iMessage, converting would be text messages to iMessages. Those users sometimes found themselves utilizing workarounds and making technical support calls in order to get their phone numbers removed from the iMessage service, which was first introduced in 2011 with the release of iOS 5.

Moore seeks a class-action status for the lawsuit and unspecified damages.

IMessage Complaint

Top Keywords

10 best low-cost smartphones 10 of the best Android clock widgets out there 24k Samsung Galaxy Note 4 hits Vietnam 4K 5 best Android racing games Acer Alcatel Amazon Amazon Fire Phone Amazon Fire Phone Review Android Android 5.0 Lollipop Android factory reset Android One Android Wear Angry Birds apple Apple A8 Apple iPad Apple iPad Air 2 Apple iPad mini 3 apple iphone Apple iPhone 5s apple iphone 6 Apple iWatch Apple Pay Apple Watch Apple’s iCloud Asus ASUS MeMO Pad 8 ME181C Review Asus ZenFone Asus ZenFone 5 Asus ZenFone 6 Asus ZenWatch BlackBerry BlackBerry Classic BlackBerry Passport Car and girls cases for iPhone 5s and iPhone 5 CEO Mark Zuckerberg CEO Tim Cook costs $2000 Dell Dropbox Facebook Flappy Bird Galaxy Note 4 Galaxy Note Edge Galaxy S Duos 3 Gigabyte Gionee Gionee Elife S5.1 Google Google Maps Google Maps with Apple Maps Google Nexus 6 Google Play hp HTC HTC Desire 820 HTC Desire Eye HTC One (M8) Huawei Huawei Ascend P7 Huawei IFA teaser iOS iPad iphone iPhone 6 iPhone 6 Plus iPhone 8 concept IT iWatch Keyboards Kia Lamborghini Laptops Lenovo Lenovo Vibe X2 LG LG G Watch LG G Watch R LG G3 Linux LTE MacBook Air Meizu Meizu MX 4 Meizu MX 4 Pro Meizu MX4 Pro memory Microsoft Microsoft Lumia 535 Microsoft Office MOTA SmartRing Moto G Moto X Moto X+1 Motorola Motorola Droid Turbo Motorola Moto 360 Motorola Moto G New Find My iPhone New iPhone 6 New iPhone app Steller mixes photos News Nexus Nexus 10 Nexus 5 Nexus 6 Nexus 7 Nexus X Nokia Nokia Lumia 1020 Nokia Lumia 920 Nubia 5S mini Nvidia Maxwell GPU Benchmarked Office 365 Olloclip for Samsung Galaxy S5 OnePlus Opera Oppo others Phones with the best battery life PlayStation Qualcomm Range Rover Review Samsung Samsung Electronics Samsung Galaxy A3 Samsung Galaxy A5 Samsung Galaxy Alpha Samsung Galaxy Alpha A3 Samsung Galaxy Alpha A5 Samsung Galaxy Alpha review Samsung Galaxy Core Prime Samsung Galaxy Mega 2 Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Samsung Galaxy S5 Samsung Galaxy S5 review Samsung Galaxy S6 Samsung Galaxy Tab Active Samsung Gear Blink Samsung Gear VR Sharp Smartphones SmartWatch softwave Sony Sony Z3 Compact Sony Xperia C3 Sony Xperia C3 hands-on Sony Xperia SP Sony Xperia Z2 Sony Xperia Z3 Sony Xperia Z4 Sony Z3 Compact Sony's Xperia series Tablets the best battery life Toshiba Toshiba Encore Toshiba Encore Mini TV Twitter Twitter remembers Windows Phone UFS VAIO Video videos and text Vivo Vivo X5 Max WhatsApp Wikipedia Win one of five new LG G3s Windows Windows 10 Windows 9 Windows Phones WP8 Lumia Xiaomi xperia SP Yahoo ZenWatch ZTE ZTE Nubia Z9