does imessage use data plan?

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.

According to the Apple agent with whom I just spoke, he said you have to have cellular data turned on, but it would not use any of your alloted data to send messages or images. Is he incorrect?

@Meg, are you also an Apple agent?

Okay, my second Apple agent, supposed to be a supervisor, said you have to have WiFi for iMessages to work. That, of course, is not true.

This is a user-to-user forum. Apple doesn't participate here.

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)

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

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.

Ok, my third Apple agent said YES. Using iMessage to send pictures will cost data.

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

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.

I found this - seems pretty conclusive to me...

"Let's put it this way, if each message takes up 1K (and it's probably much less than that on average), and you send or receive 1 message every minute you're awake (16 hours a day) for a whole month, you'd use 29 MB for those 28,800 messages, or less than 15% of even the smallest 200 MB data plan.

Yes, pictures are going to use more data. You could send 1,000 (about 33 per day) 100K picture messages (again, that's on the large size, most .jpg pics will be smaller) and only use 100 MB, or 50% of your 200 MB data plan.

Now if you're sending 30,000 text messages or 1,000 picture messages, it seems pretty obvious you aren't a good candidate for the "light user" 200 MB data plan anyway. Most people are going to have a 2 GB data limit. Under that, you could send your 30,000 text messages and your 1,000 picture messages and only use about 6.5% of your 2 GB data limit."

The pictures taken with an iPhone 4s range in size from 1.7Mbytes to 4.6Mbytes. When using the email sending utility, it is easy to reduce the file size. That resolution reduction option is not available for texting a picture message. There is probably some app out there that will reduce the file size.

For video it's automatic..the quality is not preserved after a set file size. (I don't know what that is though).

For example, I just sent a 15 second MMS video clip and the quality was automatically downgraded to what looks like VGA - although the original is clear in the "Photos".

I then sent a shorter clip, 7 seconds and it was crystal clear, just like in the "Photos"

I can only assume that there is some in-built reduction setting - unlike the email choice of Small, Medium, Large or Actual.

I also iMessaged myself a picture from my library - it's 2.3MB, I received my own photo and saved it back to my library and it was 2.3MB - so there is no change as you pointed out.

I have a theory that this is because I am on wifi though - On 3G, I think it kicks in the above stuff I mentioned...

Isn't there something about YouTube auto switching when on 3G and when on wifi? Same thing maybe?

I talked to an AT&T tech about the file size issue, since they say unlimited texts include picture and video. He could not come up with a way to reduce the file. He noted that would be a problem and gave me a $25 credit on my bill for the "trouble". I found that if I take a screen shot of a displayed photo (home and power button), I can get the size down to 0.9Mb. The AT&T guy said picture file size should be about 0.5Mb or less to send easily via SMS.