sometimes when I'm using iMessage with my friend who also has iMessage turned on the message sends as text why is this ?

Question

sometimes when I'm using iMessage with my friend who also has iMessage turned on the message sends as text why is this ?

Does anyone know why sometimes my iMessage sends as text rather than as iMessage ? I use iMessage to chat with my friend in Italy from England. We both keep out settings for iMessage turned on but during our chats occassionally my message turns green and sends as text. This then cost me money because it's an international text. The send button remains blue the whole time I'm writing the message and is blue when I send the message and it stays blue even though the message delievred as a text message. The send button remains blue after the text has sent. Can anyone tell me how to stop this happening ? Thanks

iPhone 4S, iOS 5.1.1

Posted on May 31, 2012 10:58 PM

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Answer 1

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Jun 1, 2012 3:08 AM in response to Rainbowsendcc

You both need to be connected to WiFi or 3G...it not, iMessage will go as a regular SMS.

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Answer 2

Jun 1, 2012 4:46 AM in response to wjosten

Hi

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately I need more answers that that as we are both connected to either 3g or WiFi when we are sending messages. Can you think of any other reason this may happen? Thanks

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Answer 3

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Jun 1, 2012 4:47 AM in response to Rainbowsendcc

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2755

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Answer 4

Jun 4, 2012 1:16 PM in response to Rainbowsendcc

Happens to me, too. My wife and I both have iPhones (4 and 4S) at the same iOS version, and if I scan through my text message history with her, it's interspersed with iMessage and text message. So far, I haven't found a concrete answer either.

Update: It's actually been happening the last 90 minutes, and I rebooted my iPhone and now I'm sending iMessages to her. She's been sending to me as iMessage the whole time, and her location hasn't changed. Interesting...

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Answer 5

Aug 13, 2012 1:24 PM in response to Rainbowsendcc

Hi,

To fix go to Settings>Messages>'Send as SMS (OFF)'

This means that if you have no 3G or wifi then the message will just not send instead of sending as a SMS. Turning this off means you wont accidently send a (rather expensive) text to your friend instead it will just say 'Unable to send' witha red circle next to it, allowing you to 'Try again' when you have 3G or wifi.

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Answer 6

Aug 13, 2012 11:03 PM in response to DadTheImpaler

Hi,

I had the exactly same situation yesterday. My wife (using 4S) was able to send iMessages to me and I was able reply using iMessages but I was not able to initiate iMessage conversation using her phone number. This morning I rebooted my iPhone4 and after that iMessaging to her phone number started to work again.

Very strange.

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Answer 7

Aug 9, 2013 9:07 AM in response to Rainbowsendcc

I had this happen today even with 'Send as SMS (OFF)', and both of us had strong WiFi signals (we were sitting next to each other)!

My solution is Viber.

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Answer 8

Sep 21, 2015 11:00 AM in response to Rainbowsendcc

You guys are missing the question. He is asking why, with the same settings, sometimes a message is sent out as SMS and sometimes iMessage. It is happening to me, too. It has nothing to do with settings. I just restarted and it stays the same.

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