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Level 1

4 points

iMessage questions......

So a couple of questions about iMessage.

I understand the basic difference between iMessage and a normal SMS, but is there a way to toggle between the two?

Like for example, a friend of mine is going on holiday next week, so her data will be switched off, unless she gets Wifi somewhere. So if I do want to text her, i.e. for her to get the message straight away rather than wait until she gets Wifi, how do I do that, apart from physically switching off iMessage before sending the message? We tried this morning, she switched her internet off on her phone, but I could still just iMessage her.

Also, how do I understand the Send as SMS option, is that just to say that if I don't have internet it'll send the message as SMS, or does that tie in with the above, i.e. if it can't get delivered as an iMessage after a certain amount of time it'll send it as an SMS? Because that would be annoying as you can't really keep track of how many SMS you've sent and how many have gone through as iMessages. Especially when you have contacts abroad, who you can contact for free with iMessage, but if it then goes over to SMS if it can't deliver, it'll cost a lot of money.

iPhone 4

Posted on Oct 13, 2011 4:31 AM

19 replies

sagom Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 7, 2011 6:37 AM in response to AFranciscoTeixeira

Luckily I don't get charged for using iMessage, but I have decided to switch off send as SMS, simply because some of the people I message are abroad and I don't wanna pay for the messages to them when it automatically switches from iMessage to SMS.

I played around with it before and had a few conversations with friends when the SMS option was switched on and depending on their reception, etc. some went through straight away and said delivered, others then turned from blue to green if it took to long to deliver them. I have unlimited texts (within the UK), so most of the time that wouldn't be an issue, but with my contacts abroad it would cost me. Now I still have the option to send it as an SMS when it doesn't go through quick enough and I can chat with my iPhone-using friends abroad through my messages, rather than having to go on Whatsapp.

I still hope the next update will have an option to let you automatically toggle how you want to send the message, so that you can choose iMessage or SMS. :-)

Nov 7, 2011 6:55 AM in response to Placid-oh-flamingo

Oops, i take it back.

I just grabbed my wife's phone and my phone and started an iMessage conversation. Both "send" buttons showed up in blue and the grey "iMessage" appeared in the message field. It worked well and all messages were grouped under an ............iMessage.......... heading and each individual message was blue and had "delivered" status written under it in grey.

Then I turned off imessage on my phone and sent another text to my wife's phone. It delivered the message to my wifes phn as an SMS and on my phone the SMS was under the ........Text Message......... Heading and was green with "sent as text message" written under it in grey. I replied to the SMS from my wifes phn and it was sent as an iMessage from my wife's phn to my phn but it never got delivered. I sent many messages from my wife's phn to my phn, each time as an iMessage and none of them were delivered.

After 10 minutes I turned imessage back on on my phn and some of the messages came through, but as SMS's (text messages) and not iMessages. At the exact same time they were delivered to my phn the status on my wife's phn changed from "iMessage" with no status to "sent as Text Message", NB the messages were grouped under the .......iMessage...... heading but the delivery status was "sent as text message".

It seems that iMessage has difficulty knowing when to send an SMS to a phn # that has been previously flagged as an iMessage recipient (blue speech bubble) and sends an iMessage even when it shouldn't. Even now, 35-40 min later some messages have not been delivered. Also some that we're delivered have no status, ie there is no "delivered" or "sent as text message" written under them, but they were delivered.

Next time I have an hour I might do this experiment a bit more scientifically. I get free texts to my wife and vice versa so I am not worried about it at this point. Let me know if anyone has any variables they'd like to test in this scenario and I'll get on it.

Cheers all.

Nov 7, 2011 7:24 AM in response to Placid-oh-flamingo

If you don't mind, and have the time and oportunity, I would like to see 3 scenarios tested,

ip1 - iPhone person 1

ip2 - iPhone person 2

Scenario 1:

ip1 and ip2 both iMessage ON and Send As SMS ON and With cellular data on both ON.

A couple of iMessages changed.

Then Switch OFF cellular data from ip2, theoreticaly ip2 would lose connection and Send As SMS should come in to play, on both ip1 and ip2. (this isn't working on my part, at least not in real time)

Scenario 2:

The same as scenario 1 but with Send As SMS OFF. (this is to see the diference of having it on and off, on this specific scenario)

Scenario 3:

With cellular data from ip2 OFF and ip2 over wi-fi (if u have that option)

ip1 and ip2 both iMessage ON and Send As SMS ON

A couple of iMessages changed.

Then Switch OFF iMessage on ip2, theoreticaly ip2 would lose connection and Send As SMS should come in to play, on both ip1 and ip2.

Tell us what you came up with, and thanks for the trouble.

Nov 7, 2011 10:09 AM in response to AFranciscoTeixeira

One thing I just discovered, if you double tap a iMessage who wasn't delivered yet you have the option to copy or send as sms.

iMessage questions......