Real-time chat has been everywhere for, you know, forever now and has swallowed everything in its path. Integrating chat platforms and finding a way to coherently deal with texting vs. chatting has become a major issue. Other than venting here in hallowed Gizmodo chatroom posts, how do you manage all the Google chat options, Facebook chat, Skype and everything else? Chit chat below. Read More >>

For a long time now, our smartphones have been getting more and more, well, smart. They do more things. You probably haven’t beaten your phone at chess in years. And the race to cram increasingly granular, eventually useless, features into them has defined the past few years of phone making. Except the next big waypoint won’t be some technological marvel like week-long battery life. It’s something much simpler: Plain old chat. Read More >>

So the text string "File:///" can inexplicably crash just about any app on Mountain Lion. Aside from being a curiosity, it can also be a weapon if you start hurling File:/// salvos at your friends through iMessage. If you get hit, or you hit someone and feel bad afterwards, here's how you can fix the damage. Read More >>

Apple's talked a load of finances last night, and dropped some pretty crazy factoids in the process: not only are there 250 million iCloud users, they're sending two billion messages per day. Billion. Now if only the damn thing worked well. Read More >>

SMS messaging turned 20 years old the other day, and feels even older. It's decrepit, though, wildly overpriced, and too limited to be our long-term texting solution. Read More >>

iMessage, which can be a fickle bitch sometimes, had an annoying, downright scary flaw that remained unfixed for too long: if your iPhone got stolen, the stolen phone would keep receiving messages sent via iMessage even after a remote wipe out and deactivation. That meant the thief who stole your phone, could see your messages. Apparently, it's been fixed. Thank God. Read More >>

Today, iTunes Match went down. Yesterday, it was iMessage and FaceTime. Since launching iCloud to the public on October 12th, 2011, Apple just hasn't been able to keep its cloud-based services airborne. Read More >>

Normally I avoid complaining about Apple because (a)there are plenty of other people carrying that flag, and (b) I honestly like Apple and own numerous lovely iProducts. I'm even using one to write this post. Read More >>

After iPhone text messages were found to be hackable, meaning that text for your Mum might easily be from a filthy scammer, Apple's answer is to just use iMessage, because everybody uses an iPhone, right? Read More >>

Nobody enjoys being ignored. It is the worst, most loathsome feeling in the world. And being ignored via text message is the double worst, because your whole body is practically salivating for that familiar chime or buzz alert, and it just. never. comes. It's like the worst, most emotionally fraught, prolonged sneeze. Have I made my point? Read More >>

Are your special blue iMessages acting up? Do they arrive late, or maybe not at all? It looks like there's a solution—and Apple is to blame. Read More >>

The UK loves SMS. As a nation, we regularly send over ten million texts an hour and SMS is used at all levels of society, far more so than email or voice calls. Things may not always be so rosy for SMS, however. A recent Forbes report shows that SMS usage is falling worldwide. Even the traditional SMS fest on Christmas Day was down from 2010 -- too busy tweeting "Mum and aunty Beatrice are arguing about the gravy again," were we? There are now many apps and services that will let you send short, near-instant messages to your friend's mobiles. Here's our pick of the best: Read More >>

According to Apple, the iMessage bug we posted yesterday isn't really a bug. It's a rare incident caused by an employee's over eagerness to help a customer. Read More >>

Every single iMessage to and from this man's iPhone—his friends call him Wiz—has been sent to us by accident. We know about his job, sex life, and address. Apple, you might want to fix this. Read More >>

Beware: if your iPhone gets stolen, it will keep receiving messages sent via iMessage even after a remote wipe out and deactivation. The thief—or whoever buys the stolen terminal—would be able to read whatever is written to you. Read More >>