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iphonefreak450

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 14, 2014
793
141
Hi,

While I was at work in the office, my friend said he texted me. I did not receive the SMS message using the native default Messages app on my iPhone XS.

But when I got home, all of a sudden I hear the Message notification sound and his number showed up.

I would guess all Messages are sent and received using cellular network instead of just only WiFi.

Is there a setting I should check in case there is a setting that allows messages to be received ONLY on WiFi as opposed to cellular network? If yes, then I can disable that and have all messages come through the cellular network.

This never had happened before and I am running the latest iOS 13.5.1

However, I did perform a factory reset on the phone a few nights ago.
 

compwiz1202

macrumors 604
May 20, 2010
7,389
5,742
Do you have iMessage enabled? When you received that message getting home, was it wrapped in a green or blue bubble?
IMessage uses cellular data too. Unless that was off, then yea, it would only work on Wifi. But even then, it should fall back on cellular messaging unless the use SMS setting is off.
 

one more

macrumors 601
Aug 6, 2015
4,563
5,746
Earth
IMessage uses cellular data too. Unless that was off, then yea, it would only work on Wifi. But even then, it should fall back on cellular messaging unless the use SMS setting is off.

True, unless there was a micro-gap in the OP cellular coverage, iMessage failed to go through and the OP friend’s iPhone failed to send an SMS instead for some reason. That’s why I was wondering about the colour of their message wrapping bubbles.
 

iphonefreak450

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 14, 2014
793
141
The setting Send as SMS is turned ON now along with the iMessages turned ON, so will that only allow me to send SMS messages or will I get to also receive them while the iMessages is turned ON?

I do not have Mobile Internet, only Wifi. So, the iMessage is useful only when I am at my home Wifi network. However, when I am away from home network, will I also receive SMS messages while the iMessage setting is turned ON?

The setting Send as SMS is quite confusing, which leads me to believe that I can only send SMS but not receive them.
 
Last edited:

AstonSmith

macrumors member
Nov 2, 2016
93
84
UK
I don't have mobile data either, so I have to keep iMessage turned off completely. Otherwise, other iPhone owners who message me will end up sending me an iMessage that I won't receive until I am back within WiFi range.
 
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