U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California has ordered Apple Inc. to face a United States federal lawsuit that claims the company has failed to inform its customers that its messaging system would block them from receiving text messages from other Apple devices if they switch from the iPhone to an Android running smartphone, Reuters reports. Plaintiff Adrienne Moore claims the practice of blocking messages has interfered with her contract with Verizon for wireless service, which she held on to after switching from an iPhone 4 to Samsung’s Galaxy S5.
According to the plaintiff, Apple failed to inform her on how the iOS operating system would block the delivery of “countless” messages from other Apple devices if they switched to non-Apple ones. She seeks class-action status and unspecified damages from Apple. The unfair competition laws of California seem to be on her side. According to Judge Koh, the plaintiff has an absolute right to receive every text message, and the intentional acts of Apple have caused a disruption of the contractual relationship. Apple in turn claims that its iMessage service and the Messages app running on the plaintiff’s iPhone did not have the possibility to recognize a switch to a competing device. According to the manufacturer’s words, laws do not provide remedy when “technology simply does not function as plaintiff subjectively believes it should”.
Still, recognizing that there is an issue here, Apple has launched an online tool helping users switching from Apple handsets to non-Apple devices to retrieve their messages from iPhone users. The tool encourages users to turn off iMessage on their iPhone before switching to another device, and de-register their phone number from iMessage online. The free tool is available here.