I think they mentioned this in this episode (or another) but you can turn off SMS fallback under Settings > Messages > Send as SMS. I wouldn’t do this as SMS is sometimes available when cellular data is not and I’d rather the message go out as green rather than not going out at all.
If you turn off the “Send as SMS” feature you will still be able to communicate with non-Apple devices via SMS. (I just turned off the setting to test with an Android bud and we were still able to “green chat” via ye old txt message.) You’ll also still be able to iMessage (blue chat) with your Apple friends unless cellular data is unavailable (cell data is required for iMessage because its an entirely different, more advanced protocol, than SMS).
“Send as SMS” is a bit of a confusing label for the setting but keep in mind that it’s in the iMessage area of the Messages settings. It only applies to iMessage chats (those with Apple device recipients). In other words, it has no effect on your chats with non-Apple device recipients. To be more clear it should probably be “Send iMessage as SMS when iMessage is unavailable” but that wouldn’t fit. If you look at the description under the toggle, it says pretty much that: “Send as SMS when iMessage is unavailable.” (see my post with the screenshot if you don’t want to find it on your iPhone)
As I understand it the default behavior is that when you try to send a message to a contact with iMessage (a blue bubble friend) and the iMessage attempt fails, the phone will send an SMS instead. Someone who gets charged for every text message might rather the message not send at all. It doesn’t turn off the ability to send an SMS to a green bubble friend because you know in advance that will use SMS and you can make an informed decision at the time you send the message.
Thanks all, would it send green to a iPhone/iMessage friend if that friend has bad service? I prefer sending as iMessage though I’ve had friends change from iPhone to Android before.
Yes, if either the sender or the recipient does not have cellular data available (and Send as SMS is ON), the iPhone will fallback to sending it as SMS (green) instead of iMessage (blue).
That’s not quite accurate, your device can’t know if they have signal or not, it sends as SMS if you do not have the required connection to send an iMessage.
I don’t know the technical details but since iMessage shows if the message is delivered (and read if you have read receipt enabled), iOS does know if messages are being received at the other end via iMessage. In multiple personal experiences I’ve been at home wrapped in cozy, stable wifi, sending iMessages all over and in that had one iOS recipient be in a remote area where messages were delivered as SMS. Pretty sure in those cases it was not my connection to iMessage servers that was the issue since I was sending out iMessages to other recipients successfully. But, as always, I could be wrong!
@khit @RosemaryOrchard There’s another factor at play here: the number of devices where iMessage is enabled and connected to the Internet.
The way I understand this is that iMessages are delivered through Apple’s servers and those can ping the recipient’s devices via Internet. If none of the recipient’s devices are online, Messages will revert back to SMS, provided that the option has been toggled on.
Your marketing contact idea is brilliant!!!
Just received my hoodie and shirt with the MPU logo!!! Wao love the hoodie and the shirt is perfect for the weather of Puerto Rico. So happy with the product!!!
No, it’s a couple screens back! 