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force sending text message instead of imessage in ios8

I recently updated my iphone 5s to IOS 8. and I can no long send text message to my friends who I had imessage history with. It is extremely inconvenience when they dont have internet access because they cannot receive my text. I turned off imessage in IOS 7 before but when i updated to IOS8 and it came back up. I tried to turn imessage off but weird thing happened, it doesnt let me send message anymore, instead, it tells me that "iMessage needs to be enable to send this message". How do I force it to send SMS text?


I tried the way to press the blue bubble and wait until it have the "send as SMS text" option come up, BUT nothing comes up except for "copy and more". So i press "More" and only option I had under "More" was delete the messages.


I really need this to be fixed, any help will be appreciated.

iPhone 5s, iOS 8, iMessage

Posted on Sep 18, 2014 7:37 AM

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50 replies

Oct 21, 2014 4:07 PM in response to Anqi Luo

Not sure if you've figured it out yet, but for anyone reading who hasn't, I finally found a solution this morning. I have the same issue as above as my son only has Wi-Fi/data on his phone when at home. I was struggling to send him messages when he was out as it would automatically send as an imessage. Without disabling imessage in settings, which would be extremely frustrating, I found that when he had Wi-Fi available to him, it will send as imessage, but as soon as he has no data available, I am able to send the message and then touch on the blue 'send' and it gives me the option to 'send as text message'. It only allows this when he no longer has data available. Hope this helps someone.

Oct 22, 2014 10:53 PM in response to Anqi Luo

I figured out how to default back to text messages if iOS 8 was forcing you to use iMessages! It's a bit of a process but it goes as follows:

1. Leave iMessage on (trust me)

2. Select the "send & receive" section

3. Uncheck your Apple ID (the grey one)

4. Select your Apple ID (the blue one)

5. Select "sign out"

6. Back up & turn iMessage off

7. Voila! You can send text messages now! 😀

Oct 31, 2014 2:57 PM in response to Anqi Luo

Here is my situation:

- user has an iPhone and was receiving iMessages

- user abused data plan

- removed his data plan, so he can only use wifi

- user would only receive messages when on wifi


To fix:

- on Sender's iPhone, go to Setting -> Messages, "iMessage" turn Off and then On

- on Sender's iPhone, "Send as SMS" set to On

- on Receiver's iPhone, go to "Cellular", disable "Cellular Data" (even though the carrier turned it off)

Test with the Receiver's wifi turned Off.

Jan 15, 2015 5:08 PM in response to Eur Van Andel

This is exactly the situation I had today.

I received SMS message and needed to send reply, but all my replies were going to iPad, which was on Wifi next to me.

I could force the iPhone to send sms.

I tried to click on Message icon next to the phone number in contacts, but that also was giving me only iMessage option.

There seems to be no way to force SMS without this stupid dances with Wifi/iMessage on/off.


At the end I just switched iMessage off on the iPad and not sure if it solves the problem as I resorted to just calling instead of sending SMS reply.


Thanks

force sending text message instead of imessage in ios8

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