I have a Canadian account and was wondering:
Can I use iMessage to send texts to my daugher who lives in the US for free; she has a 3GS. If I use iMessage to send a text while I am in the US to anyone in the world who has an iphone (eg., my wife who is in the States with me), ipad or mac computer and am I using data (3G with roaming charges or wifi) to do so?
GH
Yes, iMessage uses data. The only cost for the iMessage is the data costs. If I was roaming, I would turn off Send as SMS though, as normally international SMS are expensive.
Yes, iMessage uses data. The only cost for the iMessage is the data costs. If I was roaming, I would turn off Send as SMS though, as normally international SMS are expensive.
Thanks. So there is no advantage when roaming to using iMessage to another ios user? It is the same as using normal texting through other programs?
GH
Well, depending on your carrier, it would be better to use iMessage than SMS. You could use iMessage over wi-fi instead of cellular data if you want. Like I said, normally international SMS is expensive, but then data roaming can be as well. You can turn cellular data off and just use iMessage when connected to wi-fi, or pay the high cost of individual SMS.
Excuse my ignorance, are you saying that using imessage on wifi internationally would cost nothing?
GH
That is correct. Using a wi-fi connection does not use cellular data, you are using data via wi-fi. Since iMessage uses data, that is free. Of course if the person on the other end is not on wi-fi, it would count against their data usage, but if you are both on wi-fi, there is no cost to anyone. Same as sending an email via wi-fi, or surfing the web via wi-fi.
Thanks.
GH
You are welcome, thank you.
Hi, this is what I have to do because I am Canadian and my boyfriend is American, I am back and forth between borders and use imessage via wifi to text my friends in Canada. I have my phone set to Airplane mode and my wifi turned back on. Is this the best way around it. I just don't want my phone seaching for service because it kills my battery. But everytime my phone "goes to sleep" my imessages come through and I got to imessage back and it tells me to take it off airplane mode to send/receive imessages"? But if I click cancel it still continues to work. If I click disable I'm back to square one lol. So do I just keep clicking cancel or is there another way to fix this?! Thanks.
iMessage texting the US
