As an iPhone user, you must have wondered why the text bubbles of your messages keep switching colors between green and blue. What does it mean? Is there a difference?
Turns out, there is! A blue-colored text bubble means that the text has been sent in Apple’s iMessage format, whereas a green bubble would mean a standard SMS text. Keep scrolling if you need more information about the green messages, and what to do if it is an issue.
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Green and Blue- what’s the difference?
A standard SMS text consumes your phone’s cellular voice service to get delivered to the recipient. It has got nothing to do with your phone’s data. These types of messages can be sent by all mobile phones generally, be it android or iPhone, or windows.
iMessages are exclusively available on iPhones only, and these are texts sent between Apple devices that consume your phone’s data plan to get delivered. Your iPhone automatically sends a text via iMessage if it is sent to another Apple device and your phone is then connected to the internet. However, if the recipient phone is not Apple or if you are not online, the text gets delivered via SMS.
What makes the messages green?
A standard SMS text message sent from an iPhone has the green text bubble. It shows that a message you have sent to someone was delivered by SMS rather than Apple iMessage. If the text bubble is blue in colour, it means that it was sent using iMessage technology. There can be many reasons why your sent text has a green appearance.
- If ‘iMessage’ has been switched off in either the sender’s or the receiver’s iPhone, it could result in the texts being delivered over SMS services and turning the text bubbles green.
- If you are experiencing this issue for the first time today, it could be that the iMessage servers are down or your internet data connection could be facing network congestion.
- The messages sent from your iPhone will be green if they are sent to an android or any non-apple device.
Text messages still green? Here is how to turn on iMessages in iPhone
The prevailing view deems iMessage preferable over SMS, and your iPhone will use it anytime it shall be possible. You only have to keep iMessage turned on in your iPhone to send texts to other Apple devices over iMessage. To make sure it is on, follow the steps given below.
- Open the Settings application on your iPhone
- Tap on the bar that reads ‘messages’
- If the toggle next to ‘iMessage’ is green, it means that iMessage is switched on. If it is grey, swipe the button towards your right to turn it on.
That is pretty much it! Navigating iMessage is not difficult. iMessage allows you to contact people by either your phone number or your Apple id. It is recommended to rely on SMS only if a user is on an unlimited SMS service plan. In other cases, it can consume a bit of data to deliver multimedia messages. On the other hand, iMessage is a fair way to save on that additional cost if most of your contacts are Apple device users.
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