Figuring out which device we’re using at any given time is a challenging problem for Apple to solve, but in the meantime, the least it can do is give us an option to avoid being deluged with pop-up alerts and chimes on every device. (Not to mention the fact that most people type considerably faster on their Mac than they do on their iOS device. If you’ve ever participated in a conversation between the two platforms, you’ll likely have experienced the frustration of slowly tapping out a reply on the touchscreen keyboard while your conversation partner blasts out message after message.)

At this point, you’re probably saying to yourself “OK, you’re so smart, what would do?” I’m glad you asked—maybe not in such a snarky tone, but I’ll take what I can get. I’d suggest there’s already an app on OS X that fits more naturally with Messages: an app that supports live communications between multiple parties, is keyed to a phone number or an Apple ID, and provides a list of all your contacts, regardless of whether or not they actually use the service in question.

Both apps are also refugees from iOS—heck, Messages on iOS already includes a FaceTime button at the top of every conversation. And, , FaceTime integration with Messages is lackluster, to say the least. Plus, Messages was built on iChat, which already had its own video-chat capability, introducing a strange sort of redundancy.

So why not two separate apps? Keep iChat the way it is, for instant messaging, and have a new FaceTime-iMessage combo. Call it FaceMessage—I don’t know, I’m not some sort of .