iMessage while on wifi only while abroad, chance of not receiving messages?

palmerc2 · May 13, 2012

Just curious when abroad and only on wifi, I'd I leave my phone at the hotel while still on wifi, is there a chance I will not receive the message at all? Because if your iMessage doesn't get delivered within a minute or so, it automatically sends as text message. So if someone sends me an iMessage, and my iPhone is asleep, will I not receive until I turn regular cellular data back on?

Is there a way to keep wifi always on, even with the screen locked to ensure delivery of an iMessage to me? My phone is jailbroken if that makes any difference.

blueroom · May 13, 2012

WiFi is always on unless you've shut it off.

davidg4781 · May 13, 2012

I don't have anyone to try this with right now, but I'm almost certain you can use iMessage over wifi only.

To do this, turn Airplane Mode on, which will turn off all your radios. Then go into wifi and turn that on.

As far is it going to sleep, I'm not sure about that one. I'll check tomorrow, but I'm sure someone will have an answer before then.

blueroom · May 13, 2012

Just leave the sim at home.

palmerc2 · May 13, 2012

treadwellpar said:
I'm almost certain you can use iMessage over wifi only

That's not what I mean. I'm actually out of the country right now and am on wifi and have been sending iMessages. I just want to make sure I'm receiving every iMessage when my phone is asleep, that's all.

Gav2k · May 14, 2012

palmerc2 said:
That's not what I mean. I'm actually out of the country right now and am on wifi and have been sending iMessages. I just want to make sure I'm receiving every iMessage when my phone is asleep, that's all.

You will get them all providing the sender is sending it to the email address associated with your iMessage account. If they send it to your number you may not get every one!

alphaod · May 14, 2012

With AT&T, text messages are received and billed according to your domestic message plan. So I have unlimited messaging in the US, so when I receive a text abroad, I'm not billed separately for it.

Sending is a different story of course.

baileya1c · May 14, 2012

I've been in Afghanistan for 7 months and use iMessage everyday. Not once have I had any problems with it. Works like a champ.

gngan · May 14, 2012

So many wrong information here.

If you have your iPhone connected to internet (wifi OR 3G) then you will get iMessage no matter.

"providing the sender is sending it to the email address associated with your iMessage account" - This is not true. As long as you are connected to wifi then it will be iMessage.

"I'm almost certain you can use iMessage over wifi only" - False. You can use iMessage with 3G too.

"With AT&T, text messages are received and billed according to your domestic message plan. So I have unlimited messaging in the US, so when I receive a text abroad, I'm not billed separately for it." I doubt this. The sender will have to pay for roaming text fee.

alphaod · May 14, 2012

gngan said:
"With AT&T, text messages are received and billed according to your domestic message plan. So I have unlimited messaging in the US, so when I receive a text abroad, I'm not billed separately for it." I doubt this. The sender will have to pay for roaming text fee.

You doubt all you want. The facts are the facts.

The sender pays what it costs to send to a US number. I'm in Seoul right now and have been for a couple weeks. I have received many messages and never have once been charged to receive a text. Sending however is very different. That I'm billed for.

And the annoying $2.29 a minute roaming rate is a killer.

gngan · May 14, 2012

alphaod said:
You doubt all you want. The facts are the facts.

The sender pays what it costs to send to a US number. I'm in Seoul right now and have been for a couple weeks. I have received many messages and never have once been charged to receive a text. Sending however is very different. That I'm billed for.

And the annoying $2.29 a minute roaming rate is a killer.

It says, "Text, picture, video, and instant messages must be sent to and/or received from within the AT&T nationwide coverage area."

So your unlimited texting isn't cover when you are out of the States. Unless there's a unlimited international texting plan but you just said unlimited texting.

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/plans/messaging-plans.jsp?source=ECNM0000000M2A00U&fbid=Wshf0PxM_Oz

Artemis70 · Feb 1, 2013

iMessages do not arrive while phone locked

I think I have the same issue. I am currently abroud with no data roaming. iMessages do not arrive while the phone is locked. They do arrive once I unlock the iPhone. It appears that the wifi connection is not active when my iPhone is locked. A Google search confirms that this is happening.

I would really really like to have the option to keep the wifi connection, even when locked. With my European mobile phone plan I get charged for receiving regular text messages. Plus, the text messages take a bit longer to get there.

Agent-P · Feb 1, 2013

Artemis70 said:
I think I have the same issue. I am currently abroud with no data roaming. iMessages do not arrive while the phone is locked. They do arrive once I unlock the iPhone. It appears that the wifi connection is not active when my iPhone is locked. A Google search confirms that this is happening.

I would really really like to have the option to keep the wifi connection, even when locked. With my European mobile phone plan I get charged for receiving regular text messages. Plus, the text messages take a bit longer to get there.

This is true. After a while of being locked it will disconnect wifi to conserve battery. But I believe if your iPhone is plugged in then wifi will stay connected. (if I'm wrong about that, someone please correct me)

palmerc2 · Feb 1, 2013

I sorta realize how unclear I was when I wrote this.

Basically where I'm coming from, is if someone messages me to my phone number, and they have an iPhone as well (which makes it iMessage from one phone number to another) it'll eventually be sent as a text message if it doesn't get "delivered" as an iMessage. Which depending on if you are connected to cellular or not, it will not go through - at least, I think so?? Because I doubt your iPhone stays connected to wifi the entire time it's asleep, even if you're in range of wifi.

If you go to settings > messages, then you see "send as SMS"? If the person who's sending you the message has that to "on" it'll come though as a text message if your phone doesn't connect to wifi quick enough.

I'm looped right now so I dunno if this makes sense or not.

Ste Nova · Feb 2, 2013

if you only have wifi and no local cell service you will only get the the imessages, if it ends up getting sent as an sms cause i message failed you wont get it till you have cell service

MVallee · Feb 2, 2013

I have a similar question. I am traveling to London and planning to get a sim for my unlocked iPhone 5. Currently everyone who iMessages me uses my phone number. When I switch my sim to the London one, will they no longer be able to send iMessages to my original number?

blackrhino · Feb 28, 2013

I also have a similar query regarding this and I messaging while abroad.

I currently live in London with an iPhone 4 on the 3 network. A couple of months ago, I was in Berlin. I sent a message to a friend in london with an iPhone 4 and it appeared to be sent as an iMessage even thou I wasn't connected to wifi, but came up as message sent and delivered. She never received the iMessage and my phone never tried to resend as a text.

This week, now back in London, I sent and iMessage to a friend who is currently in Austria, iMessage all sent through fine, showing in blue and delivered however it appears they have not received my iMessage. They will be sporadically in and out of wifi and have spoken to them on Facebook chat but no sign of the iMessage.

Any clues?

davidg4781 · Feb 28, 2013

I have a friend who refuses to use iMessages on her iPhone because it uses too much data (separate issue, drives me crazy). The other day I started a new Message on my Mac and typed her name in to see what would happen. Up popped her Yahoo address with the blue thing by it, indicating iMessage. I sent her a message and a few hours later she replied, stating it had been sent to her iPad.

Maybe something like that could be going on, it's being sent elsewhere.

SAD*FACED*CLOWN · Mar 1, 2013

you can still send iMessages to phone numbers while in airplane mode with wifi on and data OFF

Gregintosh · Mar 1, 2013

I'm abroad in the Philippines and the Internet on cell and even landline wifi is just atrocious. iMessage works 80% of the time and other times messages arrive late and some do get lost completely. iMessage infrastructure is not that stable overseas it seems.

So ymmv, but I'd advise any iMessage buddies that if you don't respond in X hours they should assume you didn't get the message. Also, if its an emergency they should text your phone or send an email.

araje · Mar 30, 2013

I have a kind of similar problem. I and my dad's iPad were talking perfectly fine over iMessage.
But when he travelled to India and powered on his iPad and latched on to a wifi network, he is not not able to send the iMessage. The names show blue indicating it is an iMessage bit it doesn't do though.

Says undelivered. Will he have to reset his iPad and set it again indicating that his country is India ?
Oh that will be very irritating if one as to do this when they change country.
Anybody faced this problem ?

Jtludwig · Mar 31, 2013

palmerc2 said:
That's not what I mean. I'm actually out of the country right now and am on wifi and have been sending iMessages. I just want to make sure I'm receiving every iMessage when my phone is asleep, that's all.

On the senders phone, there is an option under settings to automatically send an iMessage as a SMS if it is not delivered within a few minutes. Tell your senders to turn that option off and then iMessages will automatically deliver when you reconnect to WIFI.

I travel extensively overseas so I am sure that this works.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1364769773.589942.jpg

It says "send as SMS when iMessage is unavailable". This means if iMessage is unavailable on either the sender or receivers end.

Jtludwig · Mar 31, 2013

gngan said:
So many wrong information here.

If you have your iPhone connected to internet (wifi OR 3G) then you will get iMessage no matter.

"providing the sender is sending it to the email address associated with your iMessage account" - This is not true. As long as you are connected to wifi then it will be iMessage.

"I'm almost certain you can use iMessage over wifi only" - False. You can use iMessage with 3G too.

"With AT&T, text messages are received and billed according to your domestic message plan. So I have unlimited messaging in the US, so when I receive a text abroad, I'm not billed separately for it." I doubt this. The sender will have to pay for roaming text fee.

Incorrect. If you receive a SMS overseas on AT&T it is billed as receiving a standard SMS while in the USA.

Verizon does charge to receive international SMS though.

Your statement about a sender having to pay extra to send a sms to someone who is roaming overseas is complete nonsense.

AppleFanatic10 · Mar 31, 2013

davidg4781 said:
I don't have anyone to try this with right now, but I'm almost certain you can use iMessage over wifi only.

To do this, turn Airplane Mode on, which will turn off all your radios. Then go into wifi and turn that on.

As far is it going to sleep, I'm not sure about that one. I'll check tomorrow, but I'm sure someone will have an answer before then.

Or you could just turn cellular data off and leave wifi on

----------

davidg4781 said:
I don't have anyone to try this with right now, but I'm almost certain you can use iMessage over wifi only.

To do this, turn Airplane Mode on, which will turn off all your radios. Then go into wifi and turn that on.

As far is it going to sleep, I'm not sure about that one. I'll check tomorrow, but I'm sure someone will have an answer before then.

Woah, who told you that you could only use iMessage over wifi?? You can use iMessage over anything. 3G, LTE, Edge, 1x whatever your carrier has, you can use iMessage on it. You just have to have some sort of internet access on your iDevice.

C DM · Apr 1, 2013

AppleFanatic10 said:
Or you could just turn cellular data off and leave wifi on

----------

Woah, who told you that you could only use iMessage over wifi?? You can use iMessage over anything. 3G, LTE, Edge, 1x whatever your carrier has, you can use iMessage on it. You just have to have some sort of internet access on your iDevice.

It sounds like that comment was to say that you can in fact (still) use iMessage when you are only on Wi-Fi--it was worded a bit oddly, but it seems like that's the part it was trying to address.

iMessage while on wifi only while abroad, chance of not receiving messages?

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