Free texts with iPhone - why am I being charged?

bargainhunterkid

Hello - got an iPhone 4 for Christmas and was told texts between iPhone users are free. With several people my texts come up in blue which I understand means they're free but with other friends who have iPhones the texts appear in green which I've been told means I'm paying for them?

Bit confused as to whether iPhone does have a free text facility and is there anything I need to do to ensure I can have free texts?

Any help would be great. Thank you!

grumbler

bargainhunterkid wrote: »

....was told texts between iPhone users are free. ...

Who told you this? Ask them for an explanation.
'Free' texts are a part of the tariff you are on, not a feature of a phone.

Bit confused as to whether iPhone does have a free text facility and is there anything I need to do to ensure I can have free texts?

There are alternative 'free' ways of messaging using mobile data (internet) if both you and the other part have smartphones. It's 'free' only if you are on WiFi or have mobile data allowance included in your plan.

DUTR

bargainhunterkid wrote: »

Hello - got an iPhone 4 for Christmas and was told texts between iPhone users are free. With several people my texts come up in blue which I understand means they're free but with other friends who have iPhones the texts appear in green which I've been told means I'm paying for them?

Bit confused as to whether iPhone does have a free text facility and is there anything I need to do to ensure I can have free texts?

Any help would be great. Thank you!

Seems you may have got confused, facetime and imessage are apple to apple device features, which use data or wifi, so are possibly at no extra charge to your airtime.
Regualr texts will come out of your bundle and again maybe included or chargeable depending upon which airtime package you agreed to.
There is also what's app.

NFH

This can happen when the recipient has an iPhone with an old iOS version (before iOS5). They can upgrade their iOS version for free.

silvercar

Iphone users can turn off the "receive texts as imessage" option if they wish. Your texts will then go as texts.

NFH

silvercar wrote: »

Iphone users can turn off the "receive texts as imessage" option if they wish. Your texts will then go as texts.

There is no such option. There is an option to send as SMS (if iMessage fails), but that's different. The only way to prevent texts from being received as iMessage is to turn off iMessage altogether, which also disables sending iMessage from an Apple ID.

gjchester

NFH wrote: »

There is no such option. There is an option to send as SMS (if iMessage fails), but that's different.

Not quite the easy way but you can change your Apple ID password on apples site, but not in the iMessage settings. That will disable iMessage till you put in the valid password. Not sure if you can do it in iMessage app as it won't let you continue till it verifys the password with apple.

The Apple store will still work and putting in the password there will not be passed to iMessage

NFH

gjchester wrote: »

Not quite the easy way but you can change your Apple ID password on apples site, but not in the iMessage settings. That will disable iMessage till you put in the valid password. Not sure if you can do it in iMessage app as it won't let you continue till it verifys the password with apple.

The Apple store will still work and putting in the password there will not be passed to iMessage

You're changing the subject. We're not talking here about sending and receiving iMessage via an Apple ID, but via the mobile number. The latter does not require an Apple ID.

d123

bargainhunterkid wrote: »

Hello - got an iPhone 4 for Christmas and was told texts between iPhone users are free. With several people my texts come up in blue which I understand means they're free but with other friends who have iPhones the texts appear in green which I've been told means I'm paying for them?

Bit confused as to whether iPhone does have a free text facility and is there anything I need to do to ensure I can have free texts?

Any help would be great. Thank you!

iMessage isn't as simple as that, between iOS users the system will send as iMessage if both devices are compatible, the iMessage feature is active on both and both have a working data signal.

I find it works most of the time, but if the other user is in a poor signal/ no signal area it can send as SMS text instead. While SMS will queue and send when the phone comes back on line, iMessage will try and then fail, at that stage it will change to SMS (unless you turn the alternative send off in message settings).