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LostMyiPhone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 19, 2012
423
1
Hi Everyone,

New here, first post. Unfortunatley, it comes with some bad news.

My wife lost her phone yesterday (within 15 minutes of me talking to her) and subsequent calls to it went straight to VM. It's unable to be tracked via find my iPhone so it's certainly off. Likely, whomever found it knew what they were doing and turned it off or less likely, it was run over in a parking lot and it turned off due to breakage.

Regardless -- Today, she activates her old Android POS phone to use while we figure out what to do. We had already texted back and forth several times and talked.

She sent me a text and when I went to reply from my iPhone, it turned BLUE as if I were texting another iPhone. I sent the text then sent another one real quick. Both went through as blue. I looked at them about 10 seconds later and they had turned green and said "sent as text message" below them.

I immediately checked find my iphone (which is set to alert me, play a sound, and give my phone number to call if found)

My question is: Given the backstory, what would have caused the color of our text conversation to turn blue as if I were texting another iPhone?

Thank you in advance for any replies!
 

ant the ninja

macrumors 6502a
Nov 21, 2012
614
701
When I switched from the 4s to an old blackberry while I was in the middle of switching carriers, whenever my girlfriend would text me it would still show up as an iMessage. I had to go into the store and have them deactivate my iPhone plan and add a Blackberry plan.
 

LostMyiPhone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 19, 2012
423
1
When I switched from the 4s to an old blackberry while I was in the middle of switching carriers, whenever my girlfriend would text me it would still show up as an iMessage. I had to go into the store and have them deactivate my iPhone plan and add a Blackberry plan.

Interesting.

So every message she would send you would show up as an iMessage?

See the weird thing is that we had texted back and forth many times and they were coming through as regular texts (i.e. our convo was "green and white") and then just randomly two messages that I sent tried to recognize her phone as an iPhone (changing our convo to "blue and white").

Also, what carrier are you on?

I'm on Verizon. Not sure if it matters.
 

ant the ninja

macrumors 6502a
Nov 21, 2012
614
701
Interesting.

So every message she would send you would show up as an iMessage?

See the weird thing is that we had texted back and forth many times and they were coming through as regular texts (i.e. our convo was "green and white") and then just randomly two messages that I sent tried to recognize her phone as an iPhone (changing our convo to "blue and white").

Also, what carrier are you on?

I'm on Verizon. Not sure if it matters.

I was on AT&T at the time, she was on Verizon. Every message would send as an iMessage but some of them would turn green, once the iPhone data plan was removed and the BB data was added, It only showed up as green.

Also, I should add that until that BB plan was added, I didnt have access to internet, email or anything data related, it was very odd. Even the women behind the counter was baffled when I showed her.
 

LostMyiPhone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 19, 2012
423
1
I was on AT&T at the time, she was on Verizon. Every message would send as an iMessage but some of them would turn green, once the iPhone data plan was removed and the BB data was added, It only showed up as green.

Also, I should add that until that BB plan was added, I didnt have access to internet, email or anything data related, it was very odd. Even the women behind the counter was baffled when I showed her.

Thanks for the replies!
 

XboxMySocks

macrumors 68020
Oct 25, 2009
2,230
198
From what I gather, until you restore the phone and set it up as a new one without the SIM card in it, the phone number is generally activated towards iMessage at least for some time.
 

LostMyiPhone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 19, 2012
423
1
From what I gather, until you restore the phone and set it up as a new one without the SIM card in it, the phone number is generally activated towards iMessage at least for some time.

well, thanks for the reply.

That actually gives me a glimmer of hope that perhpas it's NOT stolen but rather lost and has yet to be found.

I presume if it were stolen, restored, and set up as new (without sim) we wouldn't get that little blue "blip". So if I'm understanding you correctly, the little blue "blip" seems to indicate that it has yet to be "set up as new" without the sim...
 

Mliii

macrumors 65816
Jan 28, 2006
1,126
5
Southern California
What I've found is that, once you have activated iMessage and used it, every effort is made to initially send a message to that phone as an iMessage.
Only after determining that the phone is off or out of the service area (or iMessage is turned off or similarly unavailable) does a message shift to a text message- and the bubble turn green.
I don't think you can read too much into your messages starting off as iMessages and then switching to a standard message.
Hope you find the phone!
 

LostMyiPhone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 19, 2012
423
1
What I've found is that, once you have activated iMessage and used it, every effort is made to initially send a message to that phone as an iMessage.
Only after determining that the phone is off or out of the service area (or iMessage is turned off or similarly unavailable) does a message shift to a text message- and the bubble turn green.
I don't think you can read too much into your messages starting off as iMessages and then switching to a standard message.
Hope you find the phone!

Thanks for the reply!

I just found it odd only b/c I had texted her several times previously and didn't observe it turning blue at any time.

I know I am probably reading into it a bit much -- just given the backstory and the fact that it had not done that in the xx texts sent to her android phone since the loss, I thought maybe there was something to it.

I hope we can get it back in some way, shape, or form. I don't even care if it's busted all to hell as I could just get a new one using the applecare+ warranty for $50. That's a heckofalot cheaper than a new phone!

... I even put on the "find my iphone" message that will pop up if it ever gets turned on that I would give a cash reward if found :(

Bummer... that was my FIRST iPhone ever. Was hoping to be able to keep it for a long time
 

XboxMySocks

macrumors 68020
Oct 25, 2009
2,230
198
well, thanks for the reply.

That actually gives me a glimmer of hope that perhpas it's NOT stolen but rather lost and has yet to be found.

I presume if it were stolen, restored, and set up as new (without sim) we wouldn't get that little blue "blip". So if I'm understanding you correctly, the little blue "blip" seems to indicate that it has yet to be "set up as new" without the sim...

I believe that is correct. There is a huge issue with reselling iPhones that have been restored with the SIM still in them so they still send iMessages to the old phone. AFAIK the same principle applies here.
 

LostMyiPhone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 19, 2012
423
1
I believe that is correct. There is a huge issue with reselling iPhones that have been restored with the SIM still in them so they still send iMessages to the old phone. AFAIK the same principle applies here.

In researching, I did find complaints of the criss-crossed iMessages. Where someone sells their phone, doesn't remove the sim, and suddenly either they are getting iMessages from the person they sold it to or worse -- their messages are going to the person who they sold it to.

That was another concern of mine. Even if we do get my wife a new iPhone, I'm concerned that mayber her messages may go to this other phone and somewhat confidential information could be leaked if she makes the mistake of texting it to me or vice-versa.
 
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