Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Being charged for iMessages
- Thread starter Darrent54
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
You can't be charged for iMessages (blue), only text messages (green). The only charge you have regarding iMessages is your data plan which covers all Internet usage on your device.
Probably some random bug in the iMessage service.
A week or so ago every iMessage between one of my friends and I always double-sent as an iMessage and as a regular SMS. Went away after a few days on its own. Thankfully I didn't go over my texting plan limit, but it was worrisome.
Maybe something similar is happening to you?
A week or so ago every iMessage between one of my friends and I always double-sent as an iMessage and as a regular SMS. Went away after a few days on its own. Thankfully I didn't go over my texting plan limit, but it was worrisome.
Maybe something similar is happening to you?
The OP is confused about how iMessage works.
When using the iPhone Messages app anytime your sent messages are showing in a blue bubble and the text line you type in says "iMessage", then they are free. But if your they are in a green bubble and the text line says "Text Message", then they are sent as regular SMS text messages and subject to your carrier's billing plan.
Now I have had situations where a message I sent was initially shown as an iMessage, but within seconds changed to a regular SMS text.
When using the iPhone Messages app anytime your sent messages are showing in a blue bubble and the text line you type in says "iMessage", then they are free. But if your they are in a green bubble and the text line says "Text Message", then they are sent as regular SMS text messages and subject to your carrier's billing plan.
Now I have had situations where a message I sent was initially shown as an iMessage, but within seconds changed to a regular SMS text.
yeah I am sure he's confused. It's my coworker who turned off her iMessage and sent me a couple of text (green) and I told her don't send me no more until you turn "blue" and he was like "what's the difference?" lmao
As others have pointed out several times already, It seems people may be thinking that they are sending iMessages and either a) it's really a regular text and they don't know the difference, or b) the iMessage service is failing somehow and sending as an SMS instead.
I personally have noticed an error where my messages were sent both as iMessages and as regular SMS texts. The iMessages didn't count against my txt limit, but the actual texts did. Yes, I was sending and receiving duplicates--and had I already gone over my texting plan limit, I would have been charged for those duplicate SMS texts. I suspect something similar is happening to OP.
This was obviously some error in the iMessage service. It is notorious for weird problems such as this. Until Apple fixes it on their end, there's not much any of us can do.
The moral of the story is that Apple is not very experienced with the cloud and online services, and until they hire or otherwise buy that experience and totally re-vamp their back-end, we're going to see weird ***** like this and we'll just have to live with it.
With the recent management shake-up, I'm very optimistic about this stuff getting sorted out in the near future.
I personally have noticed an error where my messages were sent both as iMessages and as regular SMS texts. The iMessages didn't count against my txt limit, but the actual texts did. Yes, I was sending and receiving duplicates--and had I already gone over my texting plan limit, I would have been charged for those duplicate SMS texts. I suspect something similar is happening to OP.
This was obviously some error in the iMessage service. It is notorious for weird problems such as this. Until Apple fixes it on their end, there's not much any of us can do.
The moral of the story is that Apple is not very experienced with the cloud and online services, and until they hire or otherwise buy that experience and totally re-vamp their back-end, we're going to see weird ***** like this and we'll just have to live with it.
With the recent management shake-up, I'm very optimistic about this stuff getting sorted out in the near future.