iMessages not converting to text

[1stalban]

I know that I have the ability to point my phone to send SMS when iMessage is unavailable. What I've found is that the process can take a V-E-R-Y long time to go that way. The problem I'm running into is that if I notice that it hasn't "gone" in a few minutes, I'm unable to press and hold the message to force it to send as a text. The only option I get is to either copy it or send as an email.

Typically, I've found that when I run into something like this, it's user error but I am unable to find out where I'm making my mistake.

Any expert advice would be appreciated!

 

[r2shyyou]

I know that I have the ability to point my phone to send SMS when iMessage is unavailable. What I've found is that the process can take a V-E-R-Y long time to go that way. The problem I'm running into is that if I notice that it hasn't "gone" in a few minutes, I'm unable to press and hold the message to force it to send as a text. The only option I get is to either copy it or send as an email.

Typically, I've found that when I run into something like this, it's user error but I am unable to find out where I'm making my mistake.

Any expert advice would be appreciated!

I've never heard of or seen the option to send as an email. Where are you located and who is your carrier?

 

[1stalban]

I'm located in Kansas City, MO and have AT&T as my carrier.

 

[r2shyyou]

I'm located in Kansas City, MO and have AT&T as my carrier.

Okay, I searched around and found what sounds like a plausible explanation for this:

After you've sent the iMessage, if you see that it's not delivered, or if you simply want to use a belt-and-suspenders approach to make sure your recipient gets your message, just tap and hold on the blue bubble containing the message text, then choose Send as Text Message. It will get sent as a text message, and you can tell this by the green text bubble.

For this to work, you have to have your contact's phone number in their card. However, if you only have an email address for that contact, tapping and holding the text bubble shows Send to Email Address.

I hadn't heard of this before but it certainly makes sense.

Hope that helps.

 

[1stalban]

Ah ha! That makes perfect sense and I'm actually embarrassed I didn't think of that before! I've forgotten that I have two listings for my daughter in my contacts...one with a phone number and one without. Naturally, I was trying to convert the iMessage to her in the account that didn't have her phone number.

So, I was correct in my original post...it WAS user error! Thanks for your help. I greatly appreciate it.