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Does iMessage count as a Text message or as a data charge?
- Thread starter rockitdog
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I restored my phone 13 days ago and I've used 8MB of cellular data. Of course, that doesn't really say much, because I'm on WiFi when I'm at work and when I'm at home.
It'll also depend on usage. I don't typically send or receive video messages, but I do get some pictures. 95% of the time, it's just plain old text.
It's not iMessage if it involves an Android device on either end.
Depends on the data you send. For text 1 character is 1 byte. There's probably a bit of overhead as well. You'd just have to monitor your usage to be certain. If you're really worried over it you can just disable iMessage but odds are that your data hogs lie elsewhere and that you should be concerned over them instead.
Apropos of nothing, this old (June 2000) article has an interesting history of SMS messaging. It's also quite entertaining reading an old article where SMS is the latest thing.
I think you missed what I was saying here. If I was just sending SMS messages on an Android device there would be no charges for it. But... since it uses iMessage when texting to another iPhone it uses data. That's all my point was.
You would have to be sending a ton of high quality pics and/or videos for iMessages to add up to a significant amount of usage on your data plan.
My friends and I send pics and videos quite often to each other and it only totaled up to around 80MB of cellular data usage my last cycle.
Unless some of you are on one of those 200-300MB data plans. In that case you might want to just turn cellular data off except in case of emergency.
My friends and I send pics and videos quite often to each other and it only totaled up to around 80MB of cellular data usage my last cycle.
Unless some of you are on one of those 200-300MB data plans. In that case you might want to just turn cellular data off except in case of emergency.
Except there are charges for it, you pay for your texting plan or you pay for individual texts. It may be built into your "shared" plan, but you're still paying for it either way.
SMS does not use any part of the cellular data. It makes use of the signalling channel on a circuit switched GSM radio signal. The SMS message has to fit within the specification of the signalling channel and is why the size of these messages are limited. The signalling channel is used only to set up a call and is available for use outside of this.
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An iMessage uses a very small amount of data per message. There's no distinct answer as the consumption varies depending on the length of the message, if a picture was send, video and so on.
I currently have a 1GB data plan and send a large amount of iMessages and it barely effects my data.
Analogue SMS is circuit switched. Digital SMS is not and does use one packet of data with a MTU of 1500. Nearly every part of the world switched to digital cellular devices in the mid-2000s. Digital cellular devices can fallback to using circuit switched SMS in the event they cannot send the SMS packet. However, carriers prefer that not happen as it creates a larger overhead on the tower.
From THIS THREAD
Note that the message was VERY short, however adding only text to that isn't going to drastically increase its size (in terms of a per message data use). Don;t forget pictures and video though. Data usage goes completely out the window here. But with JUST text, you really need not worry. You'd have to send/recieve upwards of 1000 messages to hit even 1mb.
You indicated that the SMS messages are carried on the data network. The data network has evolved from GPRS, EDGE, 3G and now LTE. The SMS messages are not carried on any of these services but on the control channels of the voice facility and is part of signalling system 7. Digital Cellular makes no difference to that statement.
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That's weird then. I do notice one of my friends has to make it send as a text for her parents to get messages and they both have iPhones. I do know they share an Apple ID so who knows!
iMessage made the most sense when we had unlimited data, and texts cost. Now it's the opposite. Data is costly and texts are free
However, it's still a cheaper choice for international comms, plus of course it allows talking to users of non-cellular devices like an iPod touch or iPad.
It's also about locking users into something that gets popular, just as BBM did.
This is correct.
An SMS requires carriers to do everything they have to do for a voice call: interconnect with each other, correlate charges for the service, find the recipient wherever they are around the world, authenticate them, and finally set up a switched connection to send the data.
But more than a voice call, they also have to store a text if the recipient isn't available, and then forward it when a carrier somewhere finds the target user. And send a receipt back the other way if requested.
Carriers usually allow SMS to come/go via an email gateway as well.
It only "hitches a ride" from the FINAL tower to the target phone, and ONLY AFTER there has been a phone call like setup and authentication.
The "hitch" is the absolute tiniest piece of the entire transfer from phone to phone.
It doesn't use your data allotment because it's NOT internet data. That's why SMS works even on dumb cell phones without data plans. No internet involved.
Incorrect. They charge for text messages not only because of all the overhead equipment needed to handle billions of them a day, but because they are actually miniature calls with all that that entails. Voice plans used to be charged at about 5 to 10 cents per minute. That's where text charges came from.
Many people heard that the message is stashed into a control packet at one point, and are misled into thinking that's true throughout its entire journey.
Nope. That's like claiming that a FedEx overnight package should be free because it only rode in the hands of the delivery person from his truck to your door. That totally ignores everything else that took place to get it that far.
I see no reason not to use iMessage. It's one of the benefits of using Apple products. Text your contacts from your iPhone, iPad, or Mac in any country. The amount of data that it uses is negligible unless you're sending lots of large videos.