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.
Does iMessage count as a Text message or as a data charge?
- Thread starter rockitdog
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Yes they would not count towards your data. iMessage doesn't use that much data really. Have a look in settings under cellular, then under data use select system services. Mine has used 252mb since the last time it was reset. In comparison, during that time I used 35 GB of data. So iMessage, including all the pictures sent and received (which were a lot), was a whopping 0.7% of my usage.
Lets see. End to end encryption. Multiple devices (my iMessages go to all my devices, i can reply from any of them, pick up conversations on the iPad when I pick it up, etc). Delivery and read receipts if you want them.
If your phone can't deliver the message as an iMessage for some reason, it will automatically fall back to SMS and send it that way instead.
I noticed when I go on trips or something and if it's tough to get 3G my phone will send as texts if I have 1x
iMessage to another Apple device uses data. Messages to and from Android or other platforms are regular SMS/texting and do not use data. They require a texting plan.
Free international texting, pics and vids aren't really compressed (they still look good), etc...
You can also toggle that in settings. That way if you are like overseas where texting will cost a fortune but you are on wifi, you don't have to worry about it falling back on SMS.
sends faster. read receipts. pics/videos not wildly compressed. can see them on multiple devices.
At a technical level, SMS/MMS texting is data. But carriers don't charge it as such. They charge it as SMS/MMS.
You can send messages to iPhone users in other countries for free whereas your carrier charges for international texting. Likewise, if you're roaming in another country and on WiFi, you can iMessage friends back home for free.
Plus, the amount of data used by iMessage is miniscule.
MMS uses data. However, assuming GSM standards haven't changed, SMS doesn't use cellular data and I believe just uses dregs when communicating with the cell tower.
SMS uses a few packets of data interlaced between the rest of the cellular data. Some (most?) carriers don't count MMS as data usage in their plans.
SMS is still circuit-switched; each message is essentially a very short phone call and that's why it's charged differently from other data.
What do you mean by free? You got unlimited texting then its free. If not they count and subtracted out of your text messaging amount. Texts dont use up your data.
If you send to any noniOS devices then they go through as text messages and count as text messages.
You cant send imessages on android devices obviously.
Like others have said, security, multiple devices, free to text international for the other person as well, can text with people who don't have iPhones but have macs or iPads, convenient, works over wifi, so if you have no cell signal but you have wifi, you're still good.
iMessage doesn't use enough data for me to give a sh*% at all.
And SMS "hitches a ride" with the radio pinging to and from the tower. It is rather efficient because it is using waves that are being transmitted no matter what. MMS actually uses data, technically speaking, though it doesn't count against your data allotment.
Carriers charging for text messages is the biggest sham ever. It literally costs them NOTHING, since they require you to have some sort of voice plan anyway. The thing is, people pay for convenience.
For those saying not much data is used, I do caution you with pics and videos. Being that they are uncompressed, this can add up quick. We are talking a couple MB per picture message. If you are on something like the old 200mb plans, you can imagine that getting you in trouble fast! (only applies when OFF of wifi of course)
this was at home in wifi (very close to router) so to me the only thing that could have changed was the recipient