"iMessage needs to be enabled to send this message?

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.

Did you also revive your wifi PW when you reset and then try to send SMS? The network reset worked for me until I revived the wifi connection, then it was back to business-as-usual with no SMS texting.

Re: "iOS8 will not send SMS when both iPhones have iMessage disabled."

Maybe we're talking about different things here, but I think this statement is incorrect. I am running iOS8 on an 4S. Under my Messages settings, iMessage is disabled; MMS Messaging and Group Messaging are enabled; and I am able to send and receive group and text messages through my phone plan, and I am sending/receiving to users with iMessage disabled, with iMessage enabled and with non-Apple phones. I had trouble for a short while after upgrading to iOS8, but that was resolved (in my case) with a combination of network reset and enabling then disabling iMessage.

I found a fix that worked on my iphone 5. If you delete the text that is stuck on sending with imessage and then initiate another text to the same person it then defaults back to sms. It makes me think that the phone remembers the way the message was sent last to a specific person and defaults to it. Anyway see it if works for you.

I tried everything in this forum and nothing worked.

So I called my provider Verizon and we called Apple care.

My problem was that I don't use iMessage (never had it turned on before or after the IOS 8.1 update), and I was able to send text messages (green) to several people, but wasn't able to send texts to one person-my brother. Kept giving me the message from the original post. I turned iMessage on and sent it to him as an iMessage (in blue). Then turned iMessage off and it kept giving me the error message.

It was strange that for some people I could send texts and then for my brother I couldn't.

I was advised to delete the whole conversation and start a new one. Once I did this, I was able to send him the message as text. Super simple fix.

Apple care guy said if you have any previous iMessages in a conversation, this can prohibit sending texts to that particular person if you've upgraded to the new iOS system. Because my brother had sent me iMessages in our previous conversation, this has caused a glitch.

Great that everyone was able to defeat the Apple software engineers' ineptitude at their craft with workarounds. But, whatever happened to "it just works"? The point here is that Apple has a mess to clean up and refuses. I have supplied them with the simple fix: This would be a separate, industry standard SMS app, for regular type non iMessage texts, which do not go thru Apple servers, which go over the carrier's servers, with an icon at the bottom row next to the phone app. Then, just get rid of iMessage entirely. Everybody hates it anyway.

I just got this too. After years of using iMessage without any issue, this message pops up. Then I go to Settings, Messages and it says "waiting for activation" ? WHY???????? I've activated it years ago, upgraded the phone 3 times, I cant count how many OS updates too. Never a problem. All of a sudden?

This is getting pathetic. Things that should just work, stop working. Really disgusted with this phone lately.

Then, just get rid of iMessage entirely.

Speak for yourself.

Everybody hates it anyway.

No, not everybody. My family, my friends, we all love it and wont use SMS. Thats about 20-something people and I bet there are more besides us.

I agree. My family and I love using iMessage. Very convenient to share large numbers of pictures and videos, even though it eats up your data when you have to use 4G/LGE, but perfect at home or office with wifi.

My family and I love using iMessage. Very convenient to share large numbers of pictures and videos, even though it eats up your data when you have to use 4G/LGE, but perfect at home or office with wifi. However, it is EXTREMELY annoying that I do not have an easy option to switch to SMS when I want. Right now, I am visiting Canada, and I want to avoid roaming charges. I signed up for a global package with 100 SMS/100 MB data, so I want to use the SMS option instead of having iMessage eat up data when I am outside my hotel room. It is soooo frustrating!!! I tried switching iMessage and Facetime on/off and restarting my phone, but it just does not work. And I refuse to delete my 3-year text history with my wife, so the option of deleting a thread and starting a new one is no good for me.

sabinscabin's workaround is the only method that worked and did not involve deleting a thread or resetting network settings. It simply boils down to what inarf02 said, that if a thread is using iMessage, it will keep trying to send new messages using iMessage, and will not work if you slide iMessage to OFF in Settings. Anyway, here are the steps from sabinscabin's workaround with some additional steps at the end to make sure messages keep going as SMS when you switch cellular data/wifi back on.

1. Go to Settings, then Messages. Make sure "iMessages" is ON and "Send as SMS" is ON.

2. Go back to Settings and go to Cellular. Slide "Cellular Data" to OFF.

3. Go back to Settings and go to Wi-Fi, and slide "Wi-Fi" to OFF.

4. Go to the Messages app and send a message to the person you want to send SMS messages to.

5. The message will start going out as a blue iMessage. Press and hold down on the message bubble until you see the option "Send as Text Message". Press this. Once you do this, the message should go out as a green SMS.

6. Send one or two more messages to make sure they are still going out as green SMS.

[REPEAT Steps 4-6 for each person that you want to switch from iMessage to SMS]

7. Go back to Settings and go to Messages, and now slide 'iMessage" to OFF.

8. Go back to Settings and go to Cellular, and slide "Cellular Data" back to ON (if you were using cellular data (3G/4G/LGE) to begin with).

9. Go back to Settings and go to Wi-Fi, and slide "Wi-Fi" back to ON.

This should set the threads to SMS, and now all messages to the person(s) in Step 4 will go as SMS. Note that If there is more than one person that you want to switch from iMessage to SMS, you have to repeat Steps 4-6 for each person BEFORE going to Step 7. Otherwise, if you switch iMessage to OFF, text messages will not go to people with an iMessage thread - you will get the "iMessage needs to be enabled to send this message" error. A BIG downside is that if you accidentally switch iMessages back ON at any point, all threads will return to iMessage, and you have to start all over.

This is really roundabout, but it's the only thing that worked without deleting any existing threads or resetting network settings (that still doesn't make sense to me). I cannot comprehend why Apple does not give us an easy option for switching from iMessage to SMS. It shouldn't require programming more extensive than, say, first-year-college-programming courses. They do have programmers on their staff, right? Don't they realize that there is a whole world outside of the USA where cellular data is not free or cheap for US travelers???

[To Apple: sorry for lashing out at you in the previous paragraph. I love your products, but this is extremely frustrating problem that you should have fixed, and I did spend the last 3 hours obsessing over it].

Anything new to do for iPhone 6. Clearly it's enabled and did not have this issue. I did everything listed and even realize my paper with network password is gone from bottom of my router and loat my info to no avail. This is just maddening as it's clearly maddening that I cannot send 3 photos to my sis a non iPhone user but I can send 1 of the 3 photos to a friend who is an iPhone user.

I followed your instructions, and got the message bubble to turn green- then turned off iMessage and tried to send a text. Alas, I get the same message that I need to enable iMessage, and it's blue again. This is only happening with one of my contacts, and it's driving me nuts.