iMessage with No Data Plan Not Switching to SMS

Question

Level 1

0 points

iMessage with No Data Plan Not Switching to SMS

Hi,

I am considering getting an iPhone 6 as I am extremely impressed by the upgrades the phone brings. I am especially looking forward to iMessage, as all my friends have it. However, I have no data plan, and would be using iMessage on wifi only. I used to have an iPhone 3GS and used iMessage on that for a little bit until I realized I could only get them on wifi and turned it off. This was on iOS 6. Now, I am wondering if the problem still exists in iOS 8 with switching to SMS. I know that iMessage will work with both parties on wifi just fine. However, when I am off wifi, and just on data, I obviously have to use SMS. I know when my phone detects no data connection, it will stop using iMessage and start using SMS. My question is if the other party's phone pings my phone or checks the connection so that it doesn't send me iMessages when I can't receive them. For instance, I am at my house and texting a friend with iMessage on wifi. Then, I leave home to go for a walk and lose wifi connection. My phone sends the next message as an SMS. Will my friend's reply be in iMessage format (and therefore not received until I get wifi again), or will it detect that I am no longer in range of wifi and send as SMS?

Thanks ahead of time!

iPhone 6, iOS 8.3

Posted on May 18, 2015 12:30 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Chris CA

Level 10

82,759 points

May 18, 2015 12:55 PM in response to tapiocaman

tapiocaman wrote:

I am considering getting an iPhone 6 as I am extremely impressed by the upgrades the phone brings. I am especially looking forward to iMessage, as all my friends have it. However, I have no data plan,

If you purchase the iPhone from your carrier (or from Apple linked to a carrier), you will likely have a data plan as most require a data plan with iPhone.

If the message contains photos/audio or is over 160 bytes, it is sent as MMS (data) not SMS.

Reply

Answer 2

tapiocaman Author

Level 1

0 points

May 18, 2015 12:57 PM in response to Chris CA

The iPhone will be unlocked, and I am on a prepaid plan with unlimited texting and calling. The message would not be over 160 bytes.

Reply

Answer 3

Chris CA

Level 10

82,759 points

May 18, 2015 1:01 PM in response to tapiocaman

You have unlimited text.

Don't use iMessage.

Reply

Answer 4

tapiocaman Author

Level 1

0 points

May 18, 2015 1:06 PM in response to Chris CA

Correct, I just wanted to use iMessage for read receipts and such. So there is no way for iMessage to figure out that it has to use SMS to accommodate for the receiver?

Reply

Answer 5

Styna

Level 2

151 points

May 18, 2015 1:12 PM in response to tapiocaman

I believe the other party needs to turn on Settings > Messages > Send as SMS > On, otherwise, the message will go through as iMessage and you won't receive it until you are connected to WiFi again.

Reply

Answer 6

tapiocaman Author

Level 1

0 points

May 18, 2015 1:14 PM in response to Styna

So if the sender does that, the sender's phone will automatically switch over to SMS when I (the receiver) am unable to receive iMessages?

Reply

Answer 7

Styna

Level 2

151 points

May 18, 2015 1:22 PM in response to tapiocaman

I believe so.

The description for Send as SMS is: Send as SMS when iMessage is unavailable. Carrier messaging rates may apply.

Reply

Answer 8

tapiocaman Author

Level 1

0 points

May 18, 2015 1:28 PM in response to Styna

Alright. Once I receive the phone, I will try that out. If it doesn't work as planned, I will look into it more and possibly post here with an update.

Thanks for all the help!

Reply

Answer 9

Oct 18, 2015 10:34 AM in response to tapiocaman

Not sure if you are still looking for a solution but as far as I can tell, with 9.0.2, in Settings->Messages, you need to disable iMessage and enable MMS. Unfortunately, this means you will never use iMessage (which is a shame when you have WIFI) but it's the only way that messages sent from iMessage users to you are sent with SMS. If iMessage is enabled, text messages to/from non-iMessage users will work fine (as SMS) and messages to iMessage users will often work when you don't have WIFI as iMessage try to send with data and when that fails, will fall back to SMS (although doesn't seem to always work) but messages sent to you from iMessage users WILL NOT WORK. They will send messages as iMessage (which will work fine as long as they have data) but even if you do not currently have data, the messages do not get converted to SMS so you will only receive them when you get WIFI again (i.e. when you get home). Unfortunately, iMessage servers do not check to see if the recipients have a data connection and if they don't, fall back to SMS automatically. The only way around this, is the sender must manually send the message "as a text message" but they need to know to do this every time when you don't have wifi (they won't get an error since the message wasn't sent since it was delivered to iMessage servers, it just wasn't sent to you).

If anyone has a better solution, let us know

Hope this helps,

Mike

Reply