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Why can't I send iMessages to another iPhone?

A

AVR2

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 16, 2006
425
10
My wife and I have an iPhone 5s each. She's currently in the UK, I'm in Dubai. Both iPhones are set up for iCloud, me under my Apple ID and hers under hers - naturally enough.

Both our phones are unlocked, so when she got to the UK she bought a local SIM card and then texted me to let me know her new number. I texted her back, all is good.

She then sent me some replies that came through as iMessages, not SMS. Every message I send her seems to be SMS, though - it appears in the green bubble, not the blue one.

So how does this work? From what I've read, iMessage is transparent to the user, so what actually determines whether a message is sent as iMessage or SMS? How come my wife has been able to send me iMessages but all my messages to her seem to be SMS?

EDIT - could the problem be related to the fact that my wife's iPhone was set up and registered with one phone number, but while she's in the UK she's running it with a different SIM card with a different number?
 
Last edited:
A

AVR2

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 16, 2006
425
10
I think I've nailed the reason, if not a fix - for whatever reason, Apple is not registering my wife's iPhone as an iPhone, so it won't let me send iMessages to it. She hasn't done an iTunes sync since she swapped the SIMs, so possibly that will do the trick.
 
eyoungren

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,832
26,946
Two things to try. In her contacts, where she is listed as "Me" make sure that her number is set as "iPhone" and not "Mobile".

Second, when you send to her, be sure to use the country code. Considering that you are in two different countries at the moment, that probably goes without saying, but I text my friends as iMessage in the UK and Australia regularly. I had to do both of the things I'm mentioning in order for it to register as an iMessage.
 
C

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,459
eyoungren said:
Two things to try. In her contacts, where she is listed as "Me" make sure that her number is set as "iPhone" and not "Mobile".

Second, when you send to her, be sure to use the country code. Considering that you are in two different countries at the moment, that probably goes without saying, but I text my friends as iMessage in the UK and Australia regularly. I had to do both of the things I'm mentioning in order for it to register as an iMessage.
Click to expand...
The labeling doesn't really have much to do with iMessage. The country code certainly could impact that. More likely it's related to something that was mentioned by the OP, like different phone numbers associated with different SIM cards and perhaps which one gets associated with iMessage on the phone, etc.
 
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