Useful iMessage information

Information on Apple's iOS iMessage service for iOS devices

Here is some helpful information on how the iPhone iMessage feature works and how to use it to avoid unexpected data charges.

iMessage is Apple's built-in instant messaging (IM) service that lets you send messages quickly and easily to anyone else using iMessage on Apple products.

iMessage sends messages over Wi-Fi or cellular data when Wi-Fi is unavailable, rather than through traditional SMS. This means, if you do not have a data plan and are not connected to Wi-Fi, you will incur pay-per-use data charges when using iMessage.

If you only want to use iMessage in a Wi-Fi connected area, please ensure you turn off iMessage when leaving a Wi-Fi connected area to avoid unexpected data charges, or turn on “Send as SMS” to ensure you can still send and receive regular text messages where there is no data.

To turn off iMessage:

Go to
Settings
on your iPhone
Select
Messages
Toggle to the
off
position

iMessage color bubbles

When sending a message, you can distinguish between iMessage through the colors of the message:

When your text bubble is
green
they have been sent using SMS.
When your text bubble is
blue
they have been sent using iMessage.

Notes
:

If you’ve recently switched from an iPhone to a non-iPhone device (Android) please make sure you’ve
deregistered from iMessage
so you don’t experience any issues sending or receiving SMS messages.
As iMessage uses data, it is not considered text messaging. Additional roaming charges may apply.