Using iMessage to message between Australia and the US

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Using iMessage to message between Australia and the US

I've got a friend who lives overseas in Tuscon, Arizona (US) and we'd prefer to use iMessage rather than snapchat or other messaging services as it would be more convenient. The problem is I live in Brisbane, Queensland (AU), and we both have different phone numbers formats.

I've tried using different area codes for cities and states (within the phone number format) and none of them have worked.

Would it be easiest to use apple ID? Even though our Apple ID's are both linked to our phone numbers? (which is why I thought it would work in the first place).

So just to quickly summarise:

I live in Brisbane, she lives in Tuscon, we would like to use iMessage to message each other. How would we go about doing that?

Thanks,

Nick

iPhone X, 12

Posted on Feb 4, 2019 10:30 PM

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Answer 1

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gail from maine

Level 9

52,715 points

Feb 4, 2019 11:22 PM in response to NNNickAllen

In Settings>Messages>Send & Receive, change your "Start new Messages from" to your respective email addresses to see if that resolves your issue. Phone numbers and their prefixes seem to be a bit tricky for both Messages and FaceTime in certain instances.

Best,

GB

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Answer 2

NNNickAllen Author

Level 1

13 points

Feb 5, 2019 1:48 AM in response to gail from maine

Thank you, it's now showing that iMessages are being sent...

I did have the "Send & Receive" as my phone number selected, instead of my Apple ID email, so I swapped it over, restarted Messages App, Restarted iMessage (in Settings), and soft reset my phone. I can now send iMessages, and they're being delivered.

The contact does still use +1.

She should have a pleasant surprise when she wakes up in the morning :)

Thank you both, I really appreciate it.

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Answer 3

NNNickAllen Author

Level 1

13 points

Feb 5, 2019 1:47 AM in response to Toot Uncommon

Yes we've both tried +61 and +1, as well as 0011 for exiting Australia.

Maybe we have to soft reset phone and re-toggle iMessage or something...?

At the moment not even text messages will send, so we must be doing something.

And unfortunately she's fallen asleep tonight as it's kind of late over there so we can't try anything more tonight.

Thanks :),

Nick

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Answer 4

Feb 5, 2019 10:25 AM in response to NNNickAllen

You are most welcome! 😊

Best,

GB

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Answer 5

Feb 4, 2019 11:22 PM in response to NNNickAllen

Regardless of formatting, just curious if you're including the +1 prefix you would need to call or send an SMS message to a US # and if she's including the +61 for Australia. The + symbol effects the international exit code for the country you're in and can be entered by long-pressing the 0. I don't know but I believe iMessage phone # addressing follows same requirements as SMS.

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Using iMessage to message between Australia and the US

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