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I was wondering if I send a message to two (or more) people using iOS5, will the message automatically be a "Group Message"?

So, does that mean that in the above picture, John would know that I've sent "msg" to Peter, and Peter would know that I've sent "msg" to John?

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In my experience I always see all recipients in a group iMessage - so depending on if the author of the message chose email or phone numbers I see each recipient's information.

If I have that address/phone in my address book, then I get my address book's name for the contact, but even then, I can tap on the name and determine if an email or phone number was used to address the group.

On the iPhone, there is a group message toggle - but at iOS 5.1.1, it doesn't seem to matter whether this is on or off on the sender or the receiver - I still see everyone in the group iMessage. As far as I can tell, that switch doesn't do anything on an iPhone and isn't there to even help on an iPad / iPod touch.

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Do you mean that even when both receiver and sender have that switch turned off, group messages are still sent? (along with the information that it leaks, information that this msg is sent not just individually to you, but to others as well) – Pacerier May 14 '12 at 5:37
Yes - I am seeing behavior like cc: in an email where all iMessage are clearly shown and not bcc: where only the sender gets to see who was invited to the conversation. No extra data leaks in the sense that if the sender sends to me using my email for iMessage, recipients see that email only and not the whole address book card for me if other data is present. My understanding is that group switch only works over SMS/MMS and not iMessage. – bmike♦ May 14 '12 at 12:19
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No, according to this topic on the discussionboard of Apple, if you send the message to multiple people, but they will receive it as single message.

If you want to achieve a group message, I suggest you use group-sms (iMessages only!). Which will allow you to have conversations with multiple persons.

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Btw are you saying that without that the default "Message" app is incapable of sending out group-sms? – Pacerier Apr 11 '12 at 11:29
No, it can. But the recipients will get it as a normal sms, not as a group sms. – Michiel Apr 11 '12 at 11:30
Ok.. I'm not sure I'm understanding you here. How do we send a group sms? Are the instructions on trickyways.com/2010/11/… correct? – Pacerier Apr 11 '12 at 11:45
You CAN send a group message (to multiple people), but the recipients won't know if it's a group message (because they receive it as a standard message) – Michiel Apr 11 '12 at 11:54
Ah Ic, so were you saying that (even when all parties are using iOS-5,) with the default "Message" app, I can't send out a group sms that would be received as a group message? – Pacerier Apr 11 '12 at 12:02
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