Cannot text without data

[KamWest]

My son has the $15 dollar plan which gives him unlimited texting.

He sometimes runs out of data and the texting is very sporatic.

He does get a message to log into public when he is out of data but when he sends a text it shows sending for a long time on his screen and sometimes I get it and sometimes not. Same when I send one to him, it can take ten minutes or not deliver at all.

So I asked him to shut off data and wifi to see if it sends and it did but also sporadically.

What should I be expecting when data runs out?

Technically calling and texting should still work right?

[hTideGnow]

@KamWest  is your son iPhone user or Android?  Do you know if you son is using  iMessage (iPhone) or RCS (Android).    Those are special text system using data instead of the usual SMS which does not use data.  They are nice, but use data.

you can try to ask your son to turn if off and use SMS if you want to save data (except the kids these days like iMessage/RCS more 🙂  )

To Turn off on Apple:

•    click on Settings app
• click messages
• toggle iMessage to turn it off

On Android

• On the messaging app, tape 3 little dots on the top right  and click settings
• under chat settings, scroll to "Select default messaging type"
• swtich from Automatic to Text/Multimedia msg

[KamWest]

He is on Android 10 and it does not look like there is that setting. He is using the standard google message app with chat enabled. Maybe I should try disabling chat.

[Dunkman · Accepted solution]

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@KamWest wrote:
He is on Android 10 and it does not look like there is that setting. He is using the standard google message app with chat enabled. Maybe I should try disabling chat.

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@KamWest 

Yes, try to disable chat feature from Android (ie. RCS messages).  Chat requires data or Wifi.  

[KamWest]

So he keeps getting a network message that says to log into public and when I click it the message says he cannot access the web. We are now on wifi and he can surf no issues but when data is done the system message says he needs to log into public which is not possible.

[darlicious]

@KamWest 

SMS texts do not require data. MMS texts use data but go thru a separate server and do not count against plan data nor is any data required on a plan for them to work.

After trying @hTideGnow 's suggestions you may need to clear the messaging apps cache, check for updates, delete the problem contacts and re-enter them and/or uninstall and reinstall the messaging app.

[hTideGnow]

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@KamWest wrote:

So he keeps getting a network message that says to log into public and when I click it the message says he cannot access the web. We are now on wifi and he can surf no issues but when data is done the system message says he needs to log into public which is not possible.

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is his Mobile data on?  he might have a MMS waiting.  Try to turn on Mobile data and see if you can click on it 

If it is MMS, it needs Mobile Data but it WON"T count towards the data bucket

[darlicious]

@KamWest 

I hate chat features.....just disable that setting.

[hTideGnow]

hate that myself too.. but iMessage RCS are the cool things these days.  . .and Kids these days doesn't know data cost money. 😂

also, how can we ask those Apple lovers to ditch any iTool.. 

[KamWest]

OK so all that worked, here is what I had to do...

1. Disable the chat feature in the Android text app.

2. Clear the app cache

3. Restart the phone

Nothing worked until I did all of the above for Android 10

He is now receiving pictures and texts even though his data has run out and we disabled the wifi for testing purposes.

Thank you everyone for your valuable insights