Blue/Green Text Messages Fail When Off the Data Network

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Level 1

36 points

Blue/Green Text Messages Fail When Off the Data Network

So, I like these blue text messages because from what I understand, they use the data network and not your phone company's text allotment. The problem is, sometimes I'm in another country and I turn off cellular data. The phone does not seem to realize this and insists on trying to send blue messages to certain people and they never go through. If the phone is smart enough to know who gets blue vs green messages then why is it too dumb to go all green when data is turned off? very annoying. Yes, I have figured out how to "send as text message" but I sill tend to never receive anything from people until later on when I get on wifi.

What's going on?

Posted on Apr 2, 2015 11:27 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 2, 2015 11:34 AM in response to nickaster

The "blue" messages as you call them are iMessages. This is an Apple platform and require a data connection (cellular or WiFi) to function. Consequently if you are in a situation where data connections are not available, you can't send send them. "Green" are SMS text. this is a function of your carrier and does not rely on data connections; it works over the voice network (assuming your carrier support SMS and it is included in your plan, which is typical).

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Answer 2

nickaster Author

Level 1

36 points

Apr 3, 2015 4:15 AM in response to Kilgore-Trout

Right. The problem is that the phone will not automatically switch to green messages even though it's ought to be obvious to the phone that I have turned off data. With certain people, the phone insists on trying to send blue messages which I then have to manually "send as text message" and even that often doesn't seem to work. Plus, it seems that people sending me blue messages can't get through.

This definitely seems like a bug to me.

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Answer 3

Apr 3, 2015 7:37 AM in response to nickaster

When you turn off Cellular Data, go into Settings>Messages and turn iMessage off. When you wish to use the "blue" messages again, turn iMessage back on.

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Answer 4

Apr 3, 2015 7:22 AM in response to RedstoneHUD

The problem with this is that enabling or disabling iMessage is not instantaneous. It can take 24 hours for the change to register on Apple's servers and be distributed to senders.

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Answer 5

nickaster Author

Level 1

36 points

Apr 3, 2015 7:38 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

So even if I manually turn them off, this problem won't go away for 24 hours? What silliness.

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