How to switch 1 contact from iMessage to Text Message?

I don't have that option (7.0.4). I've tried all this and nothing is working so far... 😟

My solution:

Send your contact an iMessage. Double-tap on the iMessage. A box pops up with an option to send it as a Text Message. (This option will only be available if the iMessage was not successfully sent.) Once you send it as a Text Message, your iPhone should remember this as the default.

To sherbear27 - I assume you mean the "Send & Receive" option under Settings --> Messages? If so, I'm guessing you have iMessage turned off. Turn iMessage on and you will see this option.

I have a fun twist on this problem. My friend with a 5 switched to a G3. He "forgot" to disable iMessage. He read and followed instuctions on how to fix it (log in with Apple ID into an idevice, log out of imessage and all other Apple devices/apps, delete ID) and he also texted a number he found on a non-Apple forum that said it would disable iMessage issues when the other process didn't work. Now folks with 5 and lower can text him. My 5s still tries to iMessage though.

I've tried thesuggestions here in this thread on my end and no luck. His number will not disassociate from iMessage on my device, but did on others. Any ideas?

Here is my situation. A friend used to have an iPhone and he still has an iPad. He switched his phone to some Android phone. When I txt him he gets the txt on his iPad but not his phone. I cannot turn off iMessage (universally) on my iPhone because I need to be able to iMessage my son's wifi only iPad so iMessage is the ONLY way to txt him. Can I just turn off iMessage for an individual contact? OR does my friend need to turn off iMessage on his iPad?

I am also facing the problem and this is just a crazy problem we cant send text messages to somebody only because they have changed to some other phone and there is no warning when you turn imessage on, then why should you turn it off before switching. This is not a solution to the problem and Apple better takes care of this in next update because this is driving me crazy. If the messages are not received by them where do they go ?

No reason why we should turn off a feature like that. Please give a better solution

Turning iMessage off does not work as advertised. I have my iPhone 5S right here in my hand. I can turn off iMessage right now and uncheck all email addresses (essentially an iMessage exorcism) and a different iPhone with iMessage on (that I can see right now in front of my eyes) continues to send SMS as an iMessage and even says "delivered". Delivered my @$$.

Once I am able to rid iMessage from my phones I will never turn it on. My cell phone number belongs to ME not Apple. SMS is the most basic, and in times of emergencies, sometimes the most reliable of electronic communications. Don't eff it up.

Whether:

1. You put your sim in a non-apple phone (blasphemy to the cult members. What if it's an emergency phone for temporary use genius?) or

2. Choose to turn OFF iMessage on the iPhone you are holding in your hand, Apple should not break SMS. Period. Apple is causing people to miss SMS messges with iMessage.

No amount of apologetics will explain this away. It's a defective service that actually requires one to contact customer service to get YOUR NUMBER disassociated from it? What?

One more thing. Any solution that requires me to proactively contact every iPhone owner I know (seems like a lot) and ask them to do something on their phone for the privilege of sending me an SMS.... well, the rules on this forum prohibit me from accurately describing my thoughts on this matter.

jbhmacpro wrote:

blah, blah,blah

....

One more thing. Any solution that requires me to proactively contact every iPhone owner I know (seems like a lot) and ask them to do something on their phone for the privilege of sending me an SMS....

If every iPhone owner is NOT sending to your phone # (they are sending to your AppleID), they are not sending an SMS.

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>

You assume they are not sending to my actual #? Convenient to be sure. But wrong.

jbhmacpro wrote:

You assume they are not sending to my actual #?

No.

I simply made a statement.

It's that simple. Just turn off iMessage said the true believers. Oh wait if that doesn't work just contact us and we will manually intervene.. Really it couldn't be more simple. .l..

I have an iPhone 5 IOS 7.0.4. Never noticed that Apple had it's own messaging protocol until recently when my sister switched from an iPhone to an Android phone. She's called Apple support several times yet the problem persists - my iPhone still tries to message her using iMessage by default instead of SMS. Coincidentally, I'm also having the same problem sending iMessages to a friend who has an iPhone and hasn't changed anything. The fix that worked for me is very simple: on my iPhone, under Settings-->Messages, I enabled "Send as SMS" which is described as "Send as SMS when iMessage is unavailable." Just sent an iMessage to my friend, and instead of failing and not sending the message, it automatically sent it SMS when it was not able to send it iMessage.

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.

EvSouL wrote:

I love my iPhone, but come on this is such a simple design flaw that could be fixed in a small iOS update.

Yes, Apple has acknowledged it and is working on a fix.

-> https://recode.net/2014/05/22/apples-imessage-issue-goes-from-bad-to-worse-with- server-glitch/