Apple won a ruling beating back a group lawsuit sought by a former iPhone user who claimed the company's messaging system interfered with delivery of texts after she switched to an Android-based smartphone.

Plaintiff Adrienne Moore said in her complaint filed in San Jose, California that Apple's iMessage retains text messages sent from other users of Apple devices and wouldn't deliver them to her Samsung phone running on Google's Android operating system.

US District Judge Lucy H Koh ruled the case can't proceed as a group lawsuit because it's not clear enough that all proposed members of the suit suffered an inconvenience due to any "contractual breach or interference" stemming from the iMessage system.

Even if Moore is correct in arguing iMessage has “systematic flaws that could result in the disruption of text messaging services, that determination does not assist the court in determining whether iMessage actually caused the proposed class members to suffer any interference,” Koh wrote in her ruling.

The ruling is a win for Apple because allowing the case to proceed stood to increase the iPhone maker’s potential costs in defending the case, and could have given plaintiffs leverage to negotiate a deal.

The lawsuit claimed customers who replace their Apple devices with non-Apple wireless phones and tablets are “penalised and unable to obtain the full benefits of their wireless-service contracts.”

The suit claimed Apple failed to disclose that switching to a device other than one running its iOS operating system would result in interference.

The suit is based on contractual interference and unfair competition laws.