As you may have noticed, some messages that you have on your iPhone have backgrounds that are Green and others are accompanied by the Blue background. If this is something you find intriguing, let’s examine the reasons why some iMessages you receive on your iPhone are displayed with the Green background and why this affects you.
Why Are Some iMessages Green On iPhone
Your iPhone can send both Carrier support for traditional SMS text messages as well as iMessages that go via Apple’s server.
One of the major differences between the two types of text messages (SMS/iMessage) is the fact that sending an SMS message will cost you money, and be included in the message allowance on your phone plan. However, sending an iMessage message is not likely to cost you any money.
Therefore, Apple has made it simple to iPhone users to differentiate between iMessages and SMS messages by highlighting SMS messages with Green and iMessages with a Blue color.
One way to remember this is to consider Green as being a symbol of Money and that’s what your Carrier is looking for from you. Blue iMessages are completely free You can make any number of iMessages as you’d like using your iPhone.
How to Know You are Sending An iMessage
Unless you have the Unlimited messaging plan, sending text messages or SMS will be costly. It is therefore important to determine if a specific message you want to send via your iPhone will be sent as iMessage (Free) or being sent to your iPhone in the form of SMS messages (Paid).
It’s a good thing that iPhone lets you make it simple to determine if the message you receive sent from your iPhone will be an iMessage or a pay-per-click Message.
All you need to do is be aware of the color of the Send button. If you spot an Green button to send the iPhone is alerting you that the message is being sent as a pay-per-click Messageon the carrier’s Cellular Network.
If you happen to see the Blue Send button, you are able to make a smile appear on your face, since the message will go through Apple’s servers in the form of an iMessage for free. (See the image above).
Why Do Some Messages Go As SMS
The process of determining whether an e-mail is sent via iMessage as well as a Carrier enabled SMS is automatic. When you send a message to someone with one of the Apple Device (iPhone, iPad or Mac) the iPhone will be sending the message as an iMessage for free through Apple’s servers.
If you send a message to someone who isn’t connected to an Apple device the iPhone will switch into SMS Mode and sends the message via the Cellular Networks of your Carrier.
Notice: iMessages can use both WiFi as well as Cellular Network, where as SMS Messages primarily utilize Cellular Network. Cellular Network.
Advantages of iMessage Over SMS
The most significant benefit for iMessage is the fact that it’s completely free with no limits to the number of iMessages for free that users can share with anyone with any Apple device.
Another benefit that iMessage offers is security The messages leave your iPhone in a secure format and are protected regardless of how they are transferred to Apple’s servers. According to Apple the servers can’t view the content of your iMessages.
For comparison, SMS and MMS messages pass via their way through the Cellular Network of your Carrier and are not secured.
Apple’s iMessage can support large file attachments, and allows you to add photos and files that are up to 100 MB to messages. The majority of Cellular Service providers place restrictions on the kind and size of attachments (Maximum 2 x 3 MB).
SMS Text Messages can be plain appearance, boring and old when compared to feature-rich modern messaging platforms like iMessage as well as WhatsApp.
For instance, iMessage is loaded with features like the Screen Effects, Hand written text Emojis Delivery status indicators and Activity indicator bubbles to show that someone has written an email for you.
iPhone not sending blue iMessages
If your iPhone isn’t sending Blue iMessages it is probably because you are not able to turn on the iMessage feature on your iPhone. Follow these steps to enable iMessages for your iPhone.
1. Tap on Settings
2. On the Settings screen, select Messages.
3. On the Messages screen, you can switch on the option for IMessage by moving the toggle to ON (See the image below).
