Mac 911

Solutions to your most vexing Mac problems.

- GLENN FLEISHMAN

HOW TO FIX GROUP MESSAGE REPLIES THAT APPEAR AS INDIVIDUAL ONES ON YOUR iPHONE 

Apple insulates us from most of the peculiarities of the cellular world's text messaging system, SMS (Short Messaging Service), and the multimedia version, MMS. If everyone you text with uses an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch, you see nice blue bubbles and it's all handled within Apple's iMessage system.

Even if you're using SMS or MMS-where messages appear in green-Apple still hides the complexity, packaging it within the Messages app on various platforms. But you might be perplexed in one specific case, as one reader was: They use group messaging without all Apple ecosystem participants and every reply comes back as an individual message-the group isn't receiving replies as a whole!

It turns out it's related to that pesky wiring behind the scenes. To use group messaging without iMessage, you rely on a feature in MMS. But if the feature isn't enabled or your carrier doesn't support it, you'll see individual responses to all group messages sent.

To enable the feature if it's available, go to Settings Messages and enable MMS Messaging and Group Messaging (1). If neither option is available, contact your carrier.

HOW TO LET IMPORTANT PEOPLE GET THROUGH iOS'S DO NOT DISTURB OR FOCUS SETTINGS

The Do Not Disturb option added to iOS, iPadOS, and macOS should be entered into the history books for their contributions to people's uninterrupted periods of sleep and focused times while working. However, what if you want to provide an exception for people who are important in your life, particularly in case of emergencies?

iOS has offered a bypass for several releases in a couple of different places.