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The Apple Support Community will permanently close on November 20, 2026. Starting today, the site will no longer accept new posts and is available in a read-only state.
You can continue to find trusted guidance and support on the official Apple Support site.
We want to thank the community members who have contributed their time and expertise to help others with their Apple products.
will sending emojis with Apple Watch cost me outside of my sms allowance or are they part of iMessages? I know they'll use data when there's no wi fi but I'm confused and concerned about additional charges!
Apple Watch Sport 38mm, iOS 8.2
Phil0124 wrote:
Sending emojis is not different than sending the letter A in a message.
That's not totally true. Emoji's are text but they require more data than the letter A, up to 4 times more. Whether that makes a difference in cost in various different transmission systems I don't know.
I don't think you can send Apple Watch emoji to people who don't have iMessage. Some of them are like waving hands so they don't seem standard. I just tried to send one to a SMS user and it failed.* If going my iMessage then it just uses data. And probably not much of it.
Try sending an emoji to a non-iMessage user and then call up your cell company and see how much it cost?
*PS: I don't use MMS ever. I have it switched off so maybe it will try and send as MMS which your phone company might charge you more for?
Emojis over iMessage count as part of your data allowance (or WiFi) so would be free if you pay for data/are on WiFi.
Depending on your carrier, emoji's over SMS text message are charged as a MMS (with my carrier, Vodafone, in the UK it's around 45p per MMS).
I sent one to my wife's Windows phone and would not deliver, so it would have to be another iPhone I think, and would send as a text message would, if you have a limit on Text, then every one you send is a Text message.
I have just noticed MMS charges in my O2 account and recognised these charges as relating to the animated emojis sent from my watch. I spoke to O2 and they said anything donating a 160 characters of information is classed as a picture and will be sent as an MMS. They have refunded the money but as somebody suggested earlier I have now switched off the MMS option on my phone so only people using iMessage will get the animated emojis.
Hope this helps.
I've just spotted this issue via a load of 45p charges on my bill, turns out it costs 45p every time I send an emoji from the Apple Watch, frankly that is hilariously bad, how did Apple not take that into account and simply use normal emoji's? Or at least be very specific about the fact it wasn't free. Pretty disappointed it has to be said.
You can let Apple know how you feel about it via
http://www.apple.com/feedback
Emojis are nothing but text. The iPhone/Watch converts them to images. Sending emojis is not different than sending the letter A in a message.
There is no extra cost associated with them.
I have been charge nearly £6 over my allowance with EE for sending emojis!! All sent from my Apple watch which they told me converts them to picture message even though they were sent Imessage...
Are emojis on Apple watch free to send?
