Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Do you keep iMessage enabled, or turn it off?

T

TonyTouch

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 8, 2012
18
1
I am set to have my iPhone 5 delivered today. I am making the switch over from Android, and one of the main reasons I moved to Apple was the availability of iMessage. The vast majority of the people I text have iPhones, so I figured this would be a good way to cut down on SMS text messages (I have a grandfathered 500 text package, and if I wanted to move to unlimited text I would have to upgrade all my lines).

But then I started asking around and it turns off half of my friends leave iMessage off, which was disappointing to hear. Their reasoning is they have unlimited texting, so why leave it on (I can't blame them).

What do you do? What are the pros/cons of using iMessage vs standard SMS?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bee82
Leave it on.

Don't see why anyone would turn it off to be honest, don't know anyone who does either.

iMessage can be quicker, free picture/video messages.

Keeps group conversations, so everyone replies to everyone.

And even if iMessage fails it sends it as a SMS anyway.

Can't think of any negatives.
 
It's always on.

Works fine with all device in my circle of texting.
 
Leave it on, I do not understand why anybody would turn it off.

I love being able to text to people from my Mac to their iPhones and getting their text messages back to my mac without having to switch to my iPhone.
 
I turn it off.

I don't ever pay to receive SMS (even abroad) and I can send 5000 per month in my allowance.

iMessage is just needlessly complicating something that works fine. I don't have an iPad or iPod touch - and I wouldn't want the messages to appear there.

I don't know anyone who uses iMessage but can't send me an SMS.

The design of any service like iMessage is such that it adds unreliability over SMS.
 
Might as well leave it on if the people you text have it as well. It's nice to know that your message was "delivered" or "read" and not receive an error 30 minutes later saying error did not send.
 
I keep it on.

I love the fact that I can send messages to my friend's iPod because I don't like texting their androids - they can't ever open my pics/vids.

On a side note, iMessage sends faster than a text and lets you know if/when the message is delivered, and even read in some cases.

I think its one of my most favorite features of the iPhone.
 
I leave it on as a courtesy to people who have iPhones and limited texting plans. Sometimes it's good to think of others. I try to avoid it when possible, but when it's this easy....;)
 
I keep it on but I've heard of people leaving it off to save data because they have unlimited texting. I think it works way better than regular sms so I don't care. I also have unlimited data so its a non issue there too.
 
eternlgladiator said:
I keep it on but I've heard of people leaving it off to save data because they have unlimited texting. I think it works way better than regular sms so I don't care. I also have unlimited data so its a non issue there too.
Click to expand...

Yeah I have 1 GB of data and leave imessae on 24/7, everyone that I text on a regular basis use iMessage and I have never used more than .200 GB on any given month.
 
I leave it on, and use it all the time

I like in the UK and my gf is in Taiwan. Both of us have iphone's and use imessage to stay in contact.

Before this we used sms and our phone bills were huge

I've tried whatsapp, but i find imessage easier to use and more reliable
 
On always.
For those who have iMessage, it works.
For those who don't, it goes as an SMS.
Whether anyone I send messages to has unlimited texts or otherwise, if I can 'save' someone from using up a text message, why not?
And there's nothing 'needlessly complicating' (as one poster suggested) about using it- if you have it and have it on, you get the message as an iMessage.
If you don't have it (or don't have it on), you get it as a text.
What's 'needlessly complicating' about that?
 
I leave it on, I love that it delivers to my Mac, so I can continue the conversation on while I change devices, now if only ios6 can be jail broken I'd be able to use my iPad as well!

I find it amusing seeing the amount of people with iMessage bubbles who used to diss the iPhones
 
I keep mine on and agree with all the above points but ALSO, when using iMessage, video usually does not get degraded and you can send bigger attachments than MMS.
 
i leave it on as well, and lately it seems to be working very well. It seems like when it first rolled out there were issues but i don't see them at all now.
 
I leave it on my iPhone, iPad, and my Mac. I love the fact that all my conversations are synched between all my devices.

Another person mentioned it here already, but I will repeat it, and say that iMessages send faster, and you can also send just about any file. There is a size limit, but I don't know what that is, regardless it means you can even send high quality photos, opposed to the ****** compressed pictures from MMS messages.

Finally, there's the delivered and read reports that I like. Very helpful sometimes.
 
Always on. I have family around the world with iPhones and iPads and I like that I can message them whenever without getting charged worldwide SMS fees.
 
I leave it on, I use it quite a lot.

Majority of my friends, coworkers and family use it, just seems simpler to follow suit. iMessage is one of the better features of iOS, it's slowly beginning to replace my needs for 'what's app' the only people I speak to using whatsapp are andriod users, due to free sending of photos/video

I do however disable it on my iPad, sometimes other use my iPad I don't want them noting around messages etc
 
eternlgladiator said:
That's enough data to be noticeable. If I were concerned it would be a good way to save your data.
Click to expand...

Ummm... I think you misunderstood his post. S/he has a 1GB data plan, and even using iMessage + all his other data usage he never goes about .2GB. This means iMessage doesn't use a lot of data...

To further illustrate this point, my wife uses iMessage and she rarely every goes about 300MB (.3GB) a month and that includes facebook, imessage, email, internet surfing, etc. etc. etc.....
 
ProudLoz said:
Another person mentioned it here already, but I will repeat it, and say that iMessages send faster, and you can also send just about any file. There is a size limit, but I don't know what that is, regardless it means you can even send high quality photos, opposed to the ****** compressed pictures from MMS messages.
Click to expand...

The above is a big reason for why I keep iMessage on, especially for videos. I actually have "Send as SMS" turned off.
 
Daveoc64 said:
I turn it off.

I don't ever pay to receive SMS (even abroad) and I can send 5000 per month in my allowance.

iMessage is just needlessly complicating something that works fine. I don't have an iPad or iPod touch - and I wouldn't want the messages to appear there.

I don't know anyone who uses iMessage but can't send me an SMS.

The design of any service like iMessage is such that it adds unreliability over SMS.
Click to expand...

This is so ill-informed I don't know where to begin:

1. If you did have an iPod Touch or iPad, you choose whether to turn on iMessage on those devices. Heck you can even choose (with iOS 6) if you want to receive iMessages at your iPhone # or emails. That's how granular you can get. Frankly, the ability to check my iMessages on any Apple device makes it awesome. If I am in my living room, and forgot my phone, they still can pop up on my iPad.

2. "I don't know anyone who uses iMessages but can't send me an SMS", yeah that's true because if you don't have iMessage then it goes as an SMS. Not sure how this is even a point? If this didn't work, then they couldn't send ANY other phone a message. So yeah if your iPhone recognizes that the other side doesn't have iMessage it sends it as an SMS. My other thought is, do your other friends all have a rediculous SMS package? My iphone friends appreciate they can send me iMessages since they don't count against their SMS counts (and they can leave those for their feature phone and android phone friends)....

3. How is iMessage unreliable? If there is a problem with the iMessage server or someone isn't readily available then my phone sends it as an SMS. For example, buddy of mine the other day was on a plane with his phone turned off so after trying to send it as an iMessage for a minute or so, it then defaulted to SMS so when he landed it would be delievered by his carrier. Not sure how this makes it "unreliable"....

iMessage is one of my favorite features of iOS/OSX.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and videos. If both sides with iMessage are on WIFI, it sends pictures and videos at their full size and not squeeze them down to what fits in an MMS. That right there makes it worth the price of admission. No more crappy videos shared between my wife and I.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back