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kfergiez

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 5, 2010
276
1
Just curious if I (living in the U.S.) can send SMS and MMS via iMessage for free to a friend in the U.K.
 

FreakinEurekan

macrumors 603
Sep 8, 2011
5,561
2,615
Yes. As long as your message is showing up in a blue balloon it will go via iMessage and will be sent via Internet, rather than via cell carrier message.
 

diamornte

macrumors 6502
Apr 27, 2009
415
411
Didn't work for me... my friend is visiting China for business, I sent him a text (showing as iMessage, not Text Message in the chat bubble), we both have iPhone 4S's... it shows it as being sent as an iMessage, then after a few seconds, it changes to "Sent as Text Message" Go figure!
 

heisenberg123

macrumors 603
Oct 31, 2010
6,496
9
Hamilton, Ontario
Didn't work for me... my friend is visiting China for business, I sent him a text (showing as iMessage, not Text Message in the chat bubble), we both have iPhone 4S's... it shows it as being sent as an iMessage, then after a few seconds, it changes to "Sent as Text Message" Go figure!

where do you see this "sent as" message do you mean it sents as a blue bubble that later changes to green?

are you sure its not start blue than its changing to green just before the sending bar is done? this could be it initial see the reciever is on 5.0 but either your data or his data connection is lost and it defaults back to sms
 

DougFNJ

macrumors 65816
Jan 22, 2008
1,449
1,133
NJ
I have been regularly imessaging a friend in Netherlands. Make sure the email and phone number is in the contact information maybe? I think it works through one or the other. :confused:
 

gmanist1000

macrumors 68030
Sep 22, 2009
2,833
824
Yes. My dad was out of country and we used iMessage to talk to each other. He just used wifi to send the messages.
 

ChinaBrit

macrumors newbie
Dec 22, 2011
1
0
Didn't work for me... my friend is visiting China for business, I sent him a text (showing as iMessage, not Text Message in the chat bubble), we both have iPhone 4S's... it shows it as being sent as an iMessage, then after a few seconds, it changes to "Sent as Text Message" Go figure!

I live in China and iMessage doe not work for me, at least it does not work internationally. Everything leaves as SMS.
 

aziatiklover

macrumors 68030
Jul 12, 2011
2,704
269
8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
I live in China and iMessage doe not work for me, at least it does not work internationally. Everything leaves as SMS.

that's prolly because of china 3g firewall that won't let you send anything! I'm currently here in vietnam using 3g and something edge. It works like a charm texting my friends and family in the states and france.
 

Macman45

macrumors G5
Jul 29, 2011
13,197
135
Somewhere Back In The Long Ago
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

It's country by country. Works uk to NZ UK to USA Uk to some eastern countries but as posted above not China Or N Korea
 

ET iPhone Home

macrumors 68040
Oct 5, 2011
3,823
529
Orange County, California USA
When texting international using iMessage, is this covered under the text messaging plan (w/ Sprint) or is it completely free?

Also, if I were to text message someone in Stockholm, Sweden from the U.S., do I use the same method (011 + prefix) when dialing from a landline?

New to the 4S. Thanks.
 

Bawstun

Suspended
Jun 25, 2009
2,374
2,999
Not sure about the prefixes, but if you hold the 0 key down long enough it turns to a +

But yes iMessage is free. As long as you are seeing a "blue" bubble with the person you are texting, and not green, it is using your phone's data plan and not your carrier's text messaging plan (which would cost you for international rates). If YOU are not in YOUR home country, then using that data to iMessage would probably be considered roaming data and probably cost you. But that's the only way it'd cost that I can think of.
 

wordoflife

macrumors 604
Jul 6, 2009
7,564
37
But that's the only way it'd cost that I can think of.
Also, if an iMessage fails to send, the phone will automatically send it as a text message. This will cost you.

But of course, there's an option to turn that off.
 

M Quick

macrumors 6502
Nov 9, 2011
418
1
Stockholm, Sweden
that's prolly because of china 3g firewall that won't let you send anything! I'm currently here in vietnam using 3g and something edge. It works like a charm texting my friends and family in the states and france.


Then using anything against the internet would not work as its basically the same thing.

I'm guessing he hasn't enabled iMessage in the settings..
 

aziatiklover

macrumors 68030
Jul 12, 2011
2,704
269
8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
Then using anything against the internet would not work as its basically the same thing.

I'm guessing he hasn't enabled iMessage in the settings..

I was talking about ip address block. China carriers could have gone blocking imessage ip! Its like when we have facebook and twiter block, but anything else work here in some asians country such as china, and vietnam.
 

M Quick

macrumors 6502
Nov 9, 2011
418
1
Stockholm, Sweden
I was talking about ip address block. China carriers could have gone blocking imessage ip! Its like when we have facebook and twiter block, but anything else work here in some asians country such as china, and vietnam.


I see, that seems like a pain! :(
Didn't know any part of the world would do that to their users, seems silly!

But you can use either number or mail or both to receive iMessages at. Have you tried both by adding the second?

Can you direct me where this can be turned OFF - not send an iMessage as text to prevent a charge? Thanks.


You can only do the opposite, but there is a way around it, if you don't want a charge then turn the phone into flight mode and turn on wifi and send a message to make sure you are not getting charged.

NP.
 

wordoflife

macrumors 604
Jul 6, 2009
7,564
37
Can you direct me where this can be turned OFF - not send an iMessage as text to prevent a charge? Thanks.

Sure.
Settings > Messages > turn "Send As SMS" OFF.

When this is set to "OFF", iMessages that fail to send will not be sent and you will have to manually resend it.
When this is set to "ON", iMessages that fail to send will be sent as a text message automatically.
 
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