Texting with the $15 per month plan

[mariahruschak]

I bought my 2 kids the $15 a month plan. It says unlimited international texts. Does that mean limited local texting? They can’t seem to text without wifi.

[HALIMACS]

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@Luddite wrote:

@HALIMACS  @esjliv   FYI: for iPhones it's not iMessage or SMS, but both. Settings should have  all three turned on: iMessage, Send as SMS, and MMS. 

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I'm a bit unsure about this @Luddite , but I may test it.

Truth be told, I'm primarily an Android user, and based on personal experience, turning off RCS completely remedied past issues with receiving/sending certain types of messages.

I've recently starting using an iPhone, but haven't played around with the SMS/RCS/MMS settings yet.  Lot's to learn.

[esjliv]

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@mariahruschak wrote:

I bought my 2 kids the $15 a month plan. It says unlimited international texts. Does that mean limited local texting? They can’t seem to text without wifi.

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@Luddite  - this issue with the OP, as I understood it, was that their kids could not text without wifi / data whatsoever.

So, we can presume here they are either using iMessages or Chat Features (android)? And, likely burning up their data allotment.

Therefore, to guarantee messages are going through SMS, and not inadvertently using data/wifi (for chances of missed messages), my recommendation would be to turn off iMessage entirely.

I understand that may not be what others may be a fan of. When the kiddos can pay for data themselves they can dig in their own pockets to burn through it. 🙂

Unless, you are talking about a possible issue about needing to deregister their iMessage account with Apple in order to receive texts from prior iMessage contacts, perhaps?

[Luddite]

@HALIMACS  @esjliv   FYI: for iPhones it's not iMessage or SMS, but both. Settings should have  all three turned on: iMessage, Send as SMS, and MMS. 

[CountyDownIeUk]

ALL texts inbound and outbound are free. Even if you attach a picture. 

BUT there is a difference between texting and iMessage if they have iPhones. 

iPhone blue bubble, is over wifi or data, and is between 2 Apple products

iPhone green bubble, is over the carrier network, and is between an iPhone and an android (or an iPhone with iMessage turned off). 

[BKNS27 · Accepted solution]

@mariahruschak 

Great, just go to Settings>Cellular>check to see if Cellular Data is turned on.

Also check if SMS and MMS is a turned on, go to Settings>scroll down to Messages>turn on Send as SMS and turn on MMS messaging.

[mariahruschak]

Thank you for the help. They have an iphone 7 + an iphone 11.

[JL9]

No it is unlimited texting for that as well, so as mentioned they would have to go in their settings to make sure they are sending just straight SMS messages.

[softech]

@mariahruschak Kids these days prefer to  use iMessage or RCS but they need data.  These text message apps does not use much data, however when you enable data for kids, the kids would finish using the data in no time , especially $15 plan only comes with limited data.

[BKNS27]

@mariahruschak 

Texting is unlimited from Canada to anyone on their contact list.

What phone does your kids have?

It is probably a setting on the phone issue.

Data needs to be enable on the phones and SMS and MMS also need to be enabled.

Let us know what model phones so we can help further.

[HALIMACS]

@mariahruschak 

Additionally, the $15 plan includes unlimited international texting, which means when they're in Canada connected to the public mobile network , they can send / receive unlimited texts to / from anywhere in the world.

[esjliv]

@mariahruschak  - if they are using iMessage (iphone) or Chat Features (android) then they will require wifi or data.

If they want to use regular SMS texting turn the above features off, and enable SMS and MMS in the device settings.

EDIT: it actually means unlimited incoming and outgoing international texting. No overages here.

[HALIMACS]

@mariahruschak 

It's likely because they have RCS enabled.

That means with iPhones, it's iMessage. Or with Android, it's chat.

They can either switch to SMS only under their message settings or when they send an iMessage, hold the unsent message to deliver as SMS instead.