Text receiving / I-message help

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OnceBitten

535 posts

Ultimate Geek

#249325 6-May-2019 10:18

I have an I-phone 4S and my wife has a 6S and 2 weeks ago at work my phone literally died - the screen went black and wouldn't turn on or anything

I got home, plugged it into the MacBook and it came back to life and updated / charged and is now working again - but text messages were intermittent (I was geting some but not all)

wife looked at the settings and said I need to have I-message on, so she turned it on and sent me a text and I got it, but it was in blue not green....but I still wasn't getting all txts that were being sent to me.

I went to a Vodafone store and a man had a look and said I don't need I-message on because that will try to send all my txts over the internet rather than through the Vodafone network, and he said my wife won't need it on either (problem is at her end)

I told me wife she didn't need I-message on (she was adamant she did) so I turned it off on her phone... then 2 days later she gets angry at me that's she's not getting all her texts and she turns her I-message back on...

I am confused because last week I sent a txt to a real estate agent about what a house up the road sold for and I never got a reply.... but wife was on the I-pad on the weekend and said "oh the real estate agent said that house sold for $XXX" - the message had come up on the I-pad but not on my phone (where the txt was sent from) - why would this be and can I change it so when I sent a txt and someone replies it goes to my phone and not the I-pad

I thought I was reasonably tech savvy... but obviously not.....

and yes before you ask I have considered upgrading my phone and would look at any decent phone between $100-$200 (I don't use 90% of the functions / features on the I-phone)

any advice would be appreciated

Benjip

943 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

#2231515 6-May-2019 11:26

I would recommend that you do enable iMessage, because anyone with an iOS device who sends you a message will be sending it via iMessage (as Apple will have your phone number on record as being iMessage-compatible) and if you don't have this enabled, it won't deliver to your phone. iMessages will go to any iOS device or Mac device that is signed in to your Apple ID (that's the reason the real estate agent's message went to your iPad).

Once you've enabled it, on your iPhone I would head to Settings -> Messages, and scroll down to the "Send & Receive" section – click into this and make sure your phone number is in there, as well as any email addresses that you want people to be able to iMessage you at.

For me personally I've disabled the email addresses and I just have my phone number ticked/checked in there.

Long story short: if you don't have iMessage enabled on your iPhone, but you do have it enabled on the iPad, any incoming messages from other iOS/Mac users will just head straight to the iPad and you won't see them on your iPhone. The sender will think the message has got through to you as it'll show as delivered.

ben28

190 posts

Master Geek

#2231523 6-May-2019 11:31

Agree with above poster. Google. If you can't send or receive messages on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
To get some screen shots. It’s an apple support page

OnceBitten

535 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2231551 6-May-2019 11:51

Benjip:

I would recommend that you do enable iMessage, because anyone with an iOS device who sends you a message will be sending it via iMessage (as Apple will have your phone number on record as being iMessage-compatible) and if you don't have this enabled, it won't deliver to your phone. iMessages will go to any iOS device or Mac device that is signed in to your Apple ID (that's the reason the real estate agent's message went to your iPad).

Once you've enabled it, on your iPhone I would head to Settings -> Messages, and scroll down to the "Send & Receive" section – click into this and make sure your phone number is in there, as well as any email addresses that you want people to be able to iMessage you at.

For me personally I've disabled the email addresses and I just have my phone number ticked/checked in there.

Long story short: if you don't have iMessage enabled on your iPhone, but you do have it enabled on the iPad, any incoming messages from other iOS/Mac users will just head straight to the iPad and you won't see them on your iPhone. The sender will think the message has got through to you as it'll show as delivered.

ok thanks for that - I do not have a 'send and receive' option in my messages in the settings function

I've got iMessage, MMS Messaging, Character Count, Blocked

Keep Messages (1 year) and filter unknown senders

when I go to turn on iMessage (here at work)I get the error message

iMessage Unavailable

turn on mobile data or use wifi to set up iMessage

I don't have wifi at work and don't want to use what little data I have, so I won't be turning it on at work sorry

My wife did send me a txt earlier and I did receive it

SpartanVXL

1306 posts

Uber Geek

#2231692 6-May-2019 14:59

You need data for iMessage to work. Be it cellular 4G/3G or wifi. Frankly iMessage uses very little data, I get by with just 1GB per month plus rollover (web browsing takes more data) and am left with 500MB per month to save up for next month.

If you have it enabled on your other Apple devices then if somebody sends an iMessage to your mobile number ( because you registered your number) your ipad/mac will receive the iMessage and your phone will not.

You can get cheap rollover pre-pay plans that should be affordable for you to use your smartphone, well as a smartphone. Just make sure you turn off all the automatic updates and apps from using cellular and restrict to only Wifi.

josephhinvest

1543 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#2231726 6-May-2019 15:49

Agree with above, you are making your life much harder by not having iMessage switched on on one of several devices. Will only use a very small amount of data.

Cheers,
Joseph

rugrat

3106 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2231789 6-May-2019 16:41

If it has imessage in the box before tryping and not sure if other person has wifi/mobile data on then hold message as sending and option to send as text should come up.

I was meeting someone and they didn't get my texts, and we worked out that's what it was.

Edit: If imessage is not turned on your phone you will not recieve imessages from other people, just the text messages.

scuwp

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#2231814 6-May-2019 17:18

Agree with above. I suggest making your send/receive address the same on both mobile and iPad, that way you get messages no matter what device you are using. The salesman you spoke to needs a clip round the ears! Obviously knows little about the Apple ecosystem.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

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OnceBitten

535 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2231982 6-May-2019 21:19

rugrat:

If it has imessage in the box before tryping and not sure if other person has wifi/mobile data on then hold message as sending and option to send as text should come up.

I was meeting someone and they didn't get my texts, and we worked out that's what it was.

Edit: If imessage is not turned on your phone you will not recieve imessages from other people, just the text messages.

ok thanks - my worry is that if I have my mobile data turned on it will use data for everything - like if I go to a McCafe for a coffee and want to check facebook or something then it will use my data instead of connecting to McDonalds wifi - and I don't want that to happen

the man at vodafone said when my wife sends a text she can press on the text she sent and it should give her the option to send as an iMessage or just as a text, but she tried it and said it didn't work....

Linux

11396 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2231994 6-May-2019 21:25

Data over Wi-Fi always takes priority over mobile data, Turning mobile data off on a mobile phone these days is pointless just go buy a dumb phone then like a Nokia 3315

JayADee

2148 posts

Uber Geek

#2232004 6-May-2019 21:39

We just keep iMessage off and use texts for everything. Saves confusion.

SpartanVXL

1306 posts

Uber Geek

#2232227 7-May-2019 12:06

JayADee: We just keep iMessage off and use texts for everything. Saves confusion.

Problem with OP is that he has his mobile as primary send/receive on his icloud account. He needs to disable it on all his devices if he doesnt want to receive iMessages from other Apple users.

Another thing OP, if you go Settings -> Mobile, you can see an on/off switch for every application thats requested use of mobile data. This includes safari, app store, music etc.

If you are worried about things chewing up your data simply disable everything except the things you want (like iMessage or Mail). When you connect to Wifi everything will still work as normal.

Really unless you are on a 250MB or less per month allowance you should keep your mobile data on for messaging services and at the very least email. Otherwise theres very little point in using a smartphone for non-smartphone uses.

A flexible pre-pay plan from the major providers (spark, vodafone, skinny, 2degrees) will have the option to get 1-1.25GB of data around the $15-20 per month range (including unlimited texts and some minutes for calling) and the stuff you dont use rolls over so you can use it next month.