"this person cannot be reached by imessage at this time"

I had this happen to me today, and discovered the reason (at least in my case). I had two text conversions for the same number in my “recent texts”. I believe this was caused by the person changing physical phones: same number, different phones. When I switched to using the most recent conversion, the text was sent normally.

The guy I'm talking to had got his phone replaced and we used to iMessage with his regular phone number. When he got it replaced, his phone number worked for a little while then my messages kept being sent as text message. He replied back using his email and I saved it to his contact. Now when I try to text him I get that error message. I need to know why this is happening, even though I've separated the contacts (so his number is one and the email is another and same issue). Oh yeah, when I text his phone number it's sent as a text message and I don't think he receives my messages. We're apart from each other this summer and we're constantly busy so phone calls are limited and not really an option. Help please!!!

I just got this alert while sending an iMessage to a @me.com MobileMe address. I tried changing the contact address to @icloud.com and tried again - went thru.

Exact same thing happened to me today. Used to iMessage friend w/ phone number. Then around Oct, all messages turned into green texts & I never got a response. Then finally decided to leave voicemail in Dec. got an iMessage response a short time later from his email address. We've been texting that way until today when I got the "person cannot be reached by iMessage at this time" alert.

I've seen a lot of people suggest switching to SMS, but they're talking about a different alert--that little ted exclamation point one. Right now, it doesn't even try to send. It's one of those navy blue pop up alerts like when you're in a completely different app & your phone alerts you that you got a text message.

Our timing isn't great for phone calls either. And no guys I know respond to emails ever. I know it's not a matter of being blocked because a few weeks ago we made tentative plans & I was texting to follow up. Until today, I got responses.

I'm not sure what the one suggestion means about changing the contact to @icloud.com. I don't have a cloud address and neither does he.

Has anyone figured out what this problem is?

Had this happen for the first time this morning. I texted my husband at 6:45 a.m. and it went through normally. Texted again at 8:30 a.m. and got the error message. I tried several times in the next few minutes, but I kept getting the same error. Unlike other posters here, he has not switched devices recently or anything like that. Tried the same declined message again at 9:00 a.m. and it went through normally (as an iMessage, not text). No idea what the problem is, but there's my two cents.