Most of the time, when I send a message to an iPhonr user, it is sent as an iMessage automatically, however, once in a while it goes out as a text message. Why does this happen? How do I send it as an iMessage all the time?
iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)
It will send as a text message if either you or the recipient do not have a data connection. Obviously, you cannot control if the recipient has a data connection or not, so rather than just not send the message at all, it will send it as an SMS so you can be sure the recipient gets the message either way.
If the cell signal is bad, it will revert to sms text instead of imessage, its designed to do that. And the cell signal can be bad on either side.
I've decided to turn iMessage off for good. What I see happening is if someone has an iPad sitting at home, but they carry a non-IOS phone and you have iMessage on in your phone it will send your message only to the iPad at the person's home, not to their non-IOS cell phone. It will say delivered because the iPad got it.
Similarly my wife sent me a text this afternoon, I didn't get it (iMessage off in my phone) but my iMac with iMessage at home did receive the message.
Bottom line, iMessage will send only to devices with IOS if one of them is on and can receive the message, it will only send via SMS if your recipient doesn't have an active iMessage device. (Note: I haven't tried turning off *all* of my IOS devices and sending an iMessage to myself with my wife's phone to see if it reverts to SMS to send, so I may not be totally accurate here).
Apparently there is no communication bridge in Apple's system from iMessage to SMS via the phone system, and iMessage does not simultaneously send iMessage and SMS messages if your recipient has both IOS and non-IOS devices.
I have too many people who don't have IOS phones to take the risk of leaving iMessage turned on and active.
IMessage vs. Text Message
