iMessage questions......

Yah, I have the same questions too. These two situations are so confusing and we need to find a solution for them.

Especially for the first one

Is there a way to toggle between iMessage and SMS?

I think iMessage is supposed to be separated from regular SMS in another app .

If your friend is not currently reachable via iMessage when you go to text her, it will "fall back" to SMS if you have the Send As SMS "on". You will be able to tell which ones sent as which by the color of the bubbles (blue = iMessge, green =SMS)

Let me tell you what happens

SMS is turnned on in my iPhone and my friend's iphone but

when I turn off the wifi in my iPhonne and my friend try to send me an iMessage, I don't recieve SMS.

Do you know why ?

Hey everyone, it's so simple to disable it on enable it, just go the the Setting, then Messages, after that switch off the iMessage which is the first one.

If you can not switch between imessage and sms, it makes no sense... then i prefer to use whatsapp., there i know if i send the message for free (whatsapp).

From my experimentation the asnwer seems simple. If you and the person you are messaging are using iOS 5 and the reciever is available via WiFi it is sent that way. If the user isn't available via WiFi it goes SMS. It appears to be seamless. My wife and I started a texting conversation while I was at work - I had WiFi. In the parking lot WiFi doesn't exist but our conversation continued. In other words, it looks like we don't have to think about it - it just works.

Note - I sent a message to a friend who I knew was signed up on iCloud on his iPad and using iOS but I couldn't get it to recognize him. He, however, sent me a message from his iPad and then I could message him.

Do you still recieve it as an iMessage, or do you recieve nothing at all? iMessage works over 3G also.

I found that if my iPohone is not connected to wifi, it takes about 10 to 15 minutes to recieve SMS instead of iMessage.

I'm experience the same problem, my GF had to turn cellular data off because she doesn't have an internet plan yet, and instead of toggling from imessage to SMS, my phone still sends imessage but don't reach the status delivered, because we have been trying it throw wifi. And it's not very practical to be always toggling iMessage on and off. IMO

P.S. I have the option Send As SMS turned on.

It's simple but not practical, depending on the type of user you are, and what data plan you have or the person you are trying to send has.

Imagine you are sending an iMessage to a person with internet turned off (because it isn't changing to SMS as it is suposed to do when a person is not reachable) you would think that the message were sent and be gone with the rest of your life. Some people notice and w8 the satus message to turn delivered, some people don't and even if you do, if it's an emergency, or I need to be quick, or I need that person to receive that message on the next 5 min, maybe I could get lucky. IMO it's not a pratical procedure, specially after having the option to Send As SMS.

P.S. Some Carriers (like mine) even charge you when you turn iMessage on, so, yeah... it's just not that simple...

And any of what you say is dramatically different now with iMessage? I think not. My wife and I have Cingular and at least once a month we experince message delays of hours. In one case I received a message from her 48 hours after she sent it.

And just how does your carrier know you've turned on iMessage?

I'm not living in the US, so I don't really know about the service there, but here (Portugal, Europe) we are used to that kind of messages to be instant, except on Christmas and New Year's Eve, for the obvious reasons. if you take that off, it would be a downgrade not an upgrade, or even a feature, I think you could agree on that.

My carrier is Vodafone, when I turn iMessage on, iPhone prompts you with something like: "You are turning iMessage on, your carrier may charge you for this" sourly I press, Yes... and my acount drops like 50 cents (in €, so it would be like $0.70) I don't know how, but believe me, they know... It's not very usefull these days.

100% agree with dwb's first post.

In settings under messages I have turned on the option to "send as SMS when iMessage is unavailable". It's simple and works and I know I am iMessaging when the message is blue and I know I am SMSing when it's green. I have many "conversations" with my wife that are a mix of iMessage and SMS. I don't get charged extra for using iMessage it is part of my data allowance. It's seamless and I don't have to worry and they are delivered instantly every time.

It's brilliant just wish all non ios5 users could be iMessaged as well:-)

I only get charged when I'm activating the iMessage Service ON after that my data plan covers the rest. But how do u swap from iMessaging to SMSing to your wife? It simply doen's turn green for me, as it should... and I've got that option to "send as SMS when iMessage is unavailable" turned on. That's the main problem for me. And my GF when she turns her cellular data off, it doesn't turn green for her too. Just like sagom said.

So far I've had trouble with iMessage working properly with just one person and that was on the iPad. (Remember, everyone involved must be using iOS5 for iMessage to work.) I was trying to send a message to my wife using my iPad and it wasn't working. As far as the iPad was concerned, she didn't exist. So I had her send an SMS to me and I turned my phone off so it couldn't go there. The message came to my iPad and from then on I've been able to text her with the iPad. Oddly enough, everyone else I've tried to text with the iPad has gotten my texts.