"iMessage needs to be enabled to send this message?

I just installed IOS 8 on my iPhone 4S. I do not use iMessage, it has been disabled for months without issues. Now, however, I cannot send texts to some people. I'm prompted that "iMessage needs to be enabled to send this message." I will not enable iMessage to solve this. What is another proper solution for this?

my 5c just prompted me last night to install ios 8 and I also cannot send texts as regular messages. This REALLY upsets me as our family shares a data plan and Verizon informed me several months ago that iMessage uses data. We have unlimited texting which is what I WANT to use. Why would apple FORCE you to use data instead of giving you the OPTION?

Same problem - upgraded to iOS8 and now forced to use iMessage. I get an error that imessage must be enabled to sent text message; disabling that 'feature' blocks any SMS texting. Tried toggling and shut-down, still stuck with imessage.

Is imessage enabled on your phone?

@leesehome, I just upgraded to IOS on iPhone 4S as well. I also usually do not use iMessage and was getting this error. To fix my issue, I enabled iMessage, sent a message, then disabled iMessage and the error no longer appears. I don't know if simply toggling iMessage on and off would fix this issue, but I would give that a try.

I get this message also and I am so aggravated with my iPhone eight. I can’t wait till two years are up and I can go back to Samsung. My screen freezes now I’m getting this ridiculous iMessage which I don’t need or want. My Internet is so slow on this phone same services iPhone 6. The iPhone 8 the screen freezes and the screen touch half the time doesn’t work.What is going on with Apple?

Read this:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4268

Managed to solve this on my phone. One or both of the following did it: 1) Reset Network Settings (General | Reset | Reset Network Settings). This was a recommendation for IOS 8 texting issues. It deletes all wifi passwords, so beware. 2) Toggle iMesage on, then turn phone off and back on, then sent a message, and toggle iMessage off again. After all of this, all of my texts seem to go through.

I have a similar problem as the OP, I wished to disable iMessage just to avoid the complications of having two messaging systems. Also, I never use data and always keep it off in order to save battery. Third, I noticed that when using iMessage, sometimes others' messages to me reach me late, i.e. they would send it at 3 pm and I would receive it at 6 pm when I turned on my wi-fi (remember, I have data off always). For these reasons I chose to completely disable imessage.

However, for one of my contacts, I noticed that the "send" button was still blue, rather than green (as you know, green is for ordinary SMS while blue is for iMessage). When I try to send this person a text, I naturally get the "imessage needs to be enabled to send this message". I tried the solutions in this thread, but none of them worked.

However, I managed to find a workaround. First, I turned on iMessage, then I turned on "send as SMS if imessage not available" in the settings. Then, I disconnected my wifi and data so that imessage would not be available, then I tried to send an iMessage to the person in question (the one with the button stuck on blue). This time I did NOT get the error message, but the iMessage tried to send anyways, getting stuck when the bar was around 85% complete. Then, I pressed on the speech bubble being sent, and manually chose "send as text message"). Voila! the button suddenly turned green, and now I can send regular texts to that person again!

Holy Mackerel! I've been searching for the solution to this for a couple months, and now I just found it. This is the EASY fix people.

The reason it is trying to send using IMESSAGE is that it's trying to continue a thread you had before with that recipient. Just open up the message window and at the top do a search for that person's name. Then for each entry found (including groups if you want) swipe them left to delete them. When you're done, the screen should be pretty much blank. Start a new message to this person and it should come up GREEN as SMS and you're good to go.

Note I didn't have to do anything in my settings or reboot the phone or any of that stuff. I've had iMessage turned off for a while and have been dealing with this problem for some time.

This worked only if I leave cell data to off, which isn't what I want. I only want to disable iMessage for all text messages. If I turn cell data back on, I'm back to square one.

This routine did not work for me - still can't send non- iMessage texts. I've tried everything on this thread and the only way to force SMS is to shut-off cell data altogether, which is not what I want to do.

It would impossible for me to more frustrated with Apple at this point. It worked fine. Then iOS8 happened. Now I can't send texts. Brilliant innovation if you don't mind delays of minutes and hours between when messages are sent and when they're received. I especially like the feature which labels messages as delivered even though they've not been. Hard to understand why they've destroyed basic cell functionality.

Lol, I don't think anyone mentioned that the person you are sending iMessage to ALSO has to have iMessage turned on. Or else you won't even be able to send an iMessage. You can tell whether the messages you send are blue (enabled) or green (disabled).

I tried several suggestion to get this to stop happening and the network reset finally did it! I have a huge wifi password so I waited till I was out of other options but the one contact that just would not get over the imessage glitch is now working! Thanks! I did not fine the post you referenced on doing that to fix texting errors, so I could have been banging my head for a long time yet.

Dug up the link... The network reset solution came from here: http://www.imobie.com/support/common-ios-8-upgrade-problems-and-solutions.htm#qu estion8

I don't know that this addressed the exact problem I was having, but the solution worked.