does imessage use data plan?

I was initially excited about iMessage, but after a week my wife and I have made the decision to discontinue using iMessage for a few reasons:

1) Our plans have unlimited text and picture messaging which does NOT cost us any bandwidth on our data plans.

2) iMessages took approximately 1 minute longer to appear on my iPad than my iPhone

3) we've noticed Standard Text gets transmitted much faster than iMessage

Unfortunately it hasn't worked out the way I was hoping to see but my expectations might have been set a little too high. The biggest disadvantage to our decision is that I can no longer use my iPad to send messages to my wife but it's alright because my iPhone is usually within reach.

This isn't to say I won't give it another shot in the future.

Yes. The intent was to save users money by turning their text messages (which can run $.20 each incoming and outgoing message) into data usage (which is part of your data plan). Peraonlly I hope this changes. I have unlimited texting, but not unlimited data. I would like to see it changed so that I can assign my contacts to either receive text or iMessage formats at my discretion.

Based on my conversation with an Apple representative, the correct answer is NO. Using iMessage will not use up your alloted data. However, cellular data must be turned on to transmit and receive photos as a text. He could not find the information in an article to send to me, but said he would suggest that the authors rewrite the text to include the defintive answer. I am going to test it myself, even though he told me it would not cost data. I will send some pictures with cellular data on, then turn it off. You can check your data usage on AT&T by calling *DATA# from your iphone in question. He sent me this article. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3529?viewlocale=en_US, which does not address this issue for non-iOS5 user, but he said it applies.

There is one really cool feature of iMessage that permits you to start a text conversation on your iPhone and pick it up on your iPad later, or vice versa. Can't do this with standard texting. Unfortunately, this The functionality is only good with a handful of the people I trade texts with.

I am worried that I may get an iMessage with a video or picture that will eat into my data plan just like every one else. With that in mind, I turn off iMessage on my phone when Wi-Fi is not available. I also do not utilize my Apple ID as one of the "addresses" to recieve iMessages on my iPhone. That way, I can use my iPad to iMessage all I want and not worry about everything being copied on my phone and using up my data plan. I have to by pass that cool functionality that I mention above.

If there was a setting to ensure that you did not receive pictures/videos via iMessage when not connected to Wi-Fi, that would fix everything for me. A text message is practically nothing in the terms of data.

I have a very unique situation where iMessage works perfect. I live in Canada but work in the US, and when I cross the border everyday, my phone switches service providers. International texts cost me $0.60 each, but I have a North American data plan which now allows me to use iMessage to send texts instead of paying individually. It also helps when I travel for work too. I totally understand your situations though. I'm sure they'll improve it.

I use Textfree too, but it forces you to log out of textfree remotely from iPhone to use it on iPad -- and vicey versy. My concern about iMessage is that its Mac eco-system only, which means you have to run two such apps to be in contact with everyone.

I, and most of my friends who have iPhones, have unlimited data plans, but i can understand why people don't use it. It's ridiculous how much people in the US pay for data plans! I pay £35 (approx. $55) for Unlimited Texts and Data and 2000 voice minutes, and my iPhone 4 was free.

This is ridiculous. They could have mention something about it using our data. Im so dissapointed in this whole new imessage agreement. Ive been an AT&T member for sometime and Im ready to go with Verizon. Dissapointed customer.

How did you think iMessages are transmitted? Thru ESP? It's either over the Internet or over the phone network. Phone companies charge an arm and a leg for messages, so iMessage provides an alternative. Text messages are tiny in terms of data usage, so it will hardly have any impact on your overall data usage. And what does AT&T vs. Verizon have to do with any of this?

Don't want it? Turn it off and stop wining about it.

ssharptx wrote:

Based on my conversation with an Apple representative, the correct answer is NO. Using iMessage will not use up your alloted data.

That is incorrect. Using iMessage DOES use cellular data. Using SMS DOES NOT but you must have cellular data turned on to send pictures. You can test this out yourself by turning off cellular data and trying to send an iMessage.

the point is, you would have to send more than 10,000 imessages a MONTH to see a hit in your data usage, I personally wouldn't worry about it. Even if you have the cheapest data plan - you are safe from overusing your data. (Think of it this way, downloading one song from itunes on your 3G service will use more data than you could possibly text using imessage in a month)

ssharptx wrote:

Text messages do not take up much space, if they are text only. Images and video do require a lot more memory space.

The discussion is not about memory space. The question is how much data the messages use when being sent.

ssharptx wrote:

Data and the memory space those items take up are both measured in bytes.

True but not relevant. Milk & gasoline are both measured by the gallon (or the liter, depending on where you are 🙂). That doesn't make them the same.