Moved to Android - People still sending SMS as iMessage

I've been fighting this battle for weeks. I too switched to andriod and did not sign out of iMessage before turning in my iPhone 4. I wish the guy at the Apple store would have warned me about this. I did all the tricks and got it working partially. I unregistered my phone from the support site. I changed my apple id password. I was not able to do the SIM trick because my new SIM (for LG G2) doesn't fit in the iPhone. I called apple support twice. They unregistered my phone number on their end.

Once they did this, iPhone users get an error when texting me directly. That's a good thing. This lets them know there's a problem and they switch to SMS. However, if an iPhone user sends a group text with other iPhone numbers and myself, it still goes out as iMessage and there is no failure message back to the user. I simply do not get the text.

This is very frustrating. I don't understand why this is so difficult. If an apple device receives an SMS from my number, that should be the trigger to stop trying to use my phone number with iMessage. I shouldn't have to jump through all these hoops just to get it working partially.

I have resorted to asking all of my family and friends who have iPhones to disable iMessage on their device. Is that ridiculous or what?!? This is the only solution I found that works in every scenario. Everyone has done this as nobody feels iMessage provides any value anyway. Everyone has unlimited texts these days. The only benefit is to be able to text someone with an iTouch/iPad with no phone service. I don't have that scenario in my circle.

Shame on your Apple for making this so difficult!!

Putting your sim back in the iphone, and turning of iMessages from Settings will do the trick. I appreciate your sim may not fit, but a piece of card will help it seat properly to deactivate. It's the only way that fully works without any weird issues!

Have to disagree there. I turned off iMessage on my wife's iPhone 4 yesterday and a few hours later did a full system restore on it as we were giving it to a niece.

Now when I try and send my wife a text message from my iPhone to her new Nexus5 it still try's to send as an iMessage first, immediately fails and I have the option to resend as a Text Message.

Major failing on Apples part here as I'm hearing of loads of friends with similar problems.

Gary

fastbagger wrote:

Hey thanks for advice. You better get to bed don't want to be late for junior high school tomorrow

Maybe you should learn how to properly reply. You really are technology challenged, aren't you?

Is this guy serious? The issue is clearly on Apple's end 😕 Talk about brainwashed

I too am having the same issues with Apple devices not understanding my device is not an Apple product. At this point Apple is basically distributing products that are not fully capable with the existing network of phones, which is a problem

I've tried resetting the password associated with the Apple account on file with no success. It's quite silly that Apple advertises simplicity in their products but doesn't consider that not every single person who ever owned an Apple device might some day move away from their product

Still in need of a solution, messages sent from iPhones to my phone number (not e-mail) are being sent as iMessages.

Alright, I contacted Apple support and the guy seemed to know what I was talking about. After confirming the number was in fact mine he was able to remove the number from the iMessage system in a few minutes. Although the changes took a few hours to propogate through the system, everything seems to be going good now and I'm receiving messages from Apple devices once again. 🙂

Why I had to go through this trouble for messages sent to my phone number (not e-mail as some have suggested..) in the first place is still beyond me. Apple needs to sort this out as it is entirely an oversight on their end; transitioning between phones should not require reclaiming your own phone number.

If you hit road blocks (I did) telling you you don't qualify for free support, try all the options and you'll eventually hit one that will allow you to talk to a human being.

Best of luck,

Taylor

My son switched to android. He did everything Apple says to do to turn off iMessage. Nothing has worked. Every time I text him I have to press the bubble text and hit send as text message. What a JOKE. Apple: GET IT TOGETHER!!! How hard is it to detect that a phone is NOT an iphone? And on a technical note. This information should not be stored on a central server. It should be perr to peer. Let me decide to send a person normal text messages or iMessages. The problem is much simpler then. You only have the problem of someone selecting iMessage when it isn't available. But you already have that problem! And you (Apple) don;t seem capable of solving it.

One of the reason that users may have suggested using the email is because the iMessaging works off your email and not necessarily a phone number. Also, for those that might have this issue you can try to turn off iMessage on other apple devices. Some people sync their devices to be able to receive text on their apple tablets. To prevent these issue go ahead and try to turn YOUR settings for iMesagging off. Let me know if this works. Also, regarding the phone number issue im quite certain that the number becomes linked once your phones apple id is set on that phone using that specific number. Its one of the reasons why you are able to recieve text messages from your phone on your apple tablet. For them to not access your number you may lose that fancy service the majority of apple fans enjoy. :-) Hope this was helpful.

Best Regards,

Rex

"TheMadComputerScientist"

Well this should be a reply to all but the fix is very easy.

Now this sounds like a premium text but it's not. Just text stop to 48369. It will deactivate the I message. I work at a wireless company and it works every time.

Good luck

I have had the identical problem as stated by the original poster, and have taken all of the recommeded steps to fix this to no avail.

My mobile numbers have been deregistered from Apple for days, and all iOS devices continue to see my mobile numbers as iOS devices and attempt to imessage them.

YES THANK YOU!!

I've been dealing with this for weeks now and it has been SO frustrating. My iPhone bricked on me, so I couldn't go in and change the iMessage settings before I got my new droid phone and switched carriers. I unregistered the device from Apple, but it didn't do anything.

I've been tearing at my hair over this, but texting STOP to 48369 seems like it's finally done the trick! I could hug you SO HARD RIGHT NOW.

I sent it from my droid, BUT it turns out it didn't actually work. Finally I gave up and made an appointment at the genius bar. They got my phone on, charged it and turned off imessage. Not helpful for people who already got rid of their iPhone, but its the only thing that worked for me. Stupid Apple. Hmph.

i swaitched and am having the same exact issue, i have asked every to delete me and readd me as their contact and same deal... i logged into the supoprt site unregistered all my devcies.... same deal.... c'mon apple, fix this!

I searched and tried every suggestion I could find on resolving this issue and never got it resolved. Funny thing is I ended up going back to the iPhone 4s so this problem no longer concerns me. I know this doesn't help you with your issue and I feel your pain. If you happen to get this resolved please do follow up with a post because I know a few other folks that went back to Android and are still having issues.

Good luck!

BTW - My humble opinion is that Apple is not motivitated to resolve this issue. Why should they :-(

Texting "STOP" to 48369 seems to be the easiest fix. Keep in mind it'll probably take some time for changes to propogate.

@andyappel - Yes, it's quite obvious Apple is ignoring the issue. It's not unlike them to do something like that. Their refusal to act is essentially an unethical attempt to drag people back to their devices