The point is moot. iMessage as delivery notifications. If the message is not marked as "Delivered", it means the other phone didn't get it.

But it can be spotty at times with poor data connection.

iMessage gets tricky when you have multiple devices.

For example, I went out of the country, but left my iPad at home (which also receives iMessages to my phone #). Because my phone wasn't data roaming, and my iPad was still on the network at home, iMessages were being delivered to the iPad. It basically meant anyone with an iPhone couldn't text me, because the text message fallback wasn't triggering. I had to find wifi with my iPhone to catch up on texts.

The "dead battery" auto-responder has the same issue. What if my iPhone battery is dead, but I'm on a Mountain Lion MacBook and getting messages there?

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The iMessage client can't keep messages in order or search them, let alone do anything complicated like that.

There are privacy concerns when you tell people about the state of another persons device. There is also the concept of sending a message saying a devices battery is dead "gosh iPhones always have dead batteries I keep getting this alert from my friends". These are good intention designs but not quite there.

iMessages has built in notification to the sender if the message has been delivered to the receiver, hence the status "Delivered" or (if receiver has opted-in) also Read status. I see no point in this feature, since the phone could be dead for various reasons, not just battery

This doesn't make any sense at all. iMessage is now tied to my iPhone, my iPad, an iPod Touch, two iMacs, and a Macbook Air. If my iPhone's battery dies, how will Apple know that I'm not in front of another device capable of getting messages?

"One potential reason that Apple wouldn’t implement this feature is that it increases user awareness of dead iPhone batteries" I don't even

I usually “know” someone’s phone has died when 2 straight messages go through as SMS, but a standard notification would be awesome.

Why not turn it around and have iMessages send a "message received" notification when receiving a message? Have it display like a little checkmark next to any sent message that turns green if the other phone pings back. Just that - no read receipt like there is now, as that isn't always convenient.

A simple 'read receipt' would be much better, if its not already built in, although I suspect it is.

I like this, but can see some problems with iMessage on multiple devices. Ignoring that, I'd love to get a push notification at ~5% battery asking me if I'd like to put an auto-responder on.

It can't make any negative remarks about the battery life of any idevice, but it could be kinda nice if it said whether or not the receivers idevice is turned off.

The problem hasn't got anything to do with delivery notifications or auto-responders: if you need an answer right away you must use a synchronous form of communication, e.g. voice call.

iMessage, SMS, email et al are async by design. Until you hear or see an ack that's from the actual recipient (and not something automated by a device), you can't be sure the message has been properly received.

Many XMPP clients support message delivery receipts. Maybe there is also one for iOS.

But I use "my was battery dead" excuse when i am too lazy to respond.

if it did you wouldn't be able to use it as an excuse...