How to switch 1 contact from iMessage to Text Message?

This is to anyone that's having issues with iMessage deactivation,

"I no longer have my iPhone to remove iMessage."

"I still have my iPhone and I still cannot manage to completely remove iMessage."

"A friend / familly member of mine is not receiving my messages."

iOS: Deactivating iMessage

http://support.apple.com/kb/ts5185

"If you can't access your iPhone, you no longer have it, or you can't deactivate iMessage after you try the above steps, please contact Apple Support."

Seriously, it's that simple.

Thanks,

Alena

<Edited By Host>

My friend also switched to a galaxy s4 and I couldn't txt message her. I deleted her iMessage threads from all my devices, as well as her contact information, and then re entered it as new and I still couldn't txt her. Finally I messaged her multiple times, and each time clicked on the red question mark and resent and pushed "resend as a txt message" After 3 times I think it caught on, and the messages started sending as txt messages on the first try. Curious if this works for others?

While it's sending as an iMessage and it has the sending bar, just hold your finger on the message that it's sending and on the pop-up menu it will say Send as TextMessage, you might have to do that with two messages then it'll keep doing it, maybe after a while you'll have to do it again but it works.

And this is the magic answer. In fact, no need to delete and re-add the contact. Simply change the phone type of the recipient from "iPhone" to "mobile" and future communications will default to text messaging (SMS), not iMessage.

No. It's not your problem. No intelligent human being would see this as your problem.

He can send you text messages.

You can send him messages.

The fact that he cannot receive them because he chose to not turn off iMessage prior to switching devices is his problem.

I have to come on here and comment as I too was looking for a solution here. My friend has an iPhone 5 and disabled iMessage as a result of him not being able to message his wife anymore who had an iPhone but switched to Android. It made it so he could text anyone under the sun, but I could NOT send him texts despite him being on his iPhone with iMessage disabled.

And Apple should be smart enough to know that sometimes people's phones break, and then they could go a different route at that point, like my other buddy. His iPhone got water damage and he didn't have the money for a new iPhone so he went with a cheap Android. As a result I cannot text him without holding down the blue message bubble until the popup appears and selecting send as text message. I work in software development and can honestly say, it's not hard for Apple to implement a system that confirms that the device you're trying to send iMessage to is communicating via iMessage. Especially if a message is going to fail via iMessage. Why wouldn't the iPhone automatically send via text messge and see if that works instead of just giving you an error?

I love my iPhone, but come on this is such a simple design flaw that could be fixed in a small iOS update. iMessage-> send message via iMessage-> Check for iMessage compatability-> iMessage compatability not detected-> Revert to text message.

So don't blame a user for not knowing they need to turn off iMessage before changing phones.That's ridiculous. It's even more ridiculous a point because that does not even work! It does not alert the Apple server that you're no longer using iMessage on that number, and if it does, it's not doing it very well per my first example in this post.

I am having this same Problem, and it is very hard whne that person has lost there phone therefore can now not turn it off...

this is a mjor pain in the behind... as it is effecting my work ethic to be able to send messages.

Apple should rectify this problem and include it in one of the IOS updates

Thank you Dorktones, this has been an issue for months and it was driving us crazy. I could not send my daughter messages because it kept trying to send an imessage and she's never owned an iphone. A friend of mine has an add a line contract through at&t that she was not using so I bought a cheap phone from walmart and she got it turned on for her. The only thing I could figure was that the number was associated with an iphone at one time. That iphone is long gone, no way to fix this but unchecking my email worked perfectly and I can now send her text messages. yay !!!!

thank you so much !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😁

dorktones wrote:

I had the same issue where my sister switched from an iPhone to an Android, but my messages were still defaulting as iMessages when I would send her somethng. I just did the following, and I think it may have fixed the issue: Settings> Messages> Send & Receive> I unchecked all the email addresses and only left my phone number checked.

I'm hoping this permanently fixes my issues, though, and that it's not just a temporary glitch. 😀

I know this conversation is pretty old, but a friend of mine was having the same problem. And while this is marked "answered" I didn't see this link anywhere on this thread. I wanted to add it because it seems like a simpler solution.

https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage

It allows you to turn off iMessages without contacting Apple, without your iPhone (which is great because someone stole my friend's phone), and without deleting any contacts. (This link is for the person who no longer an iPhone. If someone else is not getting your iMessages because they switched phones, you do not have to turn iMessages completely off if they deregister their account.)

There is no control on whether a message is sent via iMessage or SMS beyond turning iMessage off for you.

This is not your issue, it is the other persons issue.

The issue is that your friend chose to not disable iMessage prior to switching devices.

If they still have the iPhone, they need to disable iMessage on it.

This shutting off and so on happens on its self when you restore the iPhone as new when you sell it. And you do that because you do not want to leave al your "personal" things on it. Remember even deleted items are still on the iPhone in a trash bin and can be restored. It is unwise not to completely empty it before you get rid of it.

So, basically it is your problem, and maybe additionally also your friend's problem when he switched phones.