What happens if I turn off SMS on iPhone? Explained

Last Updated on May 28, 2023 by Kennedy

On iPhone, there are two types of text messaging and which includes the iMessage and the sms text message.

The iMessage which is the blue text message on iPhone requires internet connection, while the sms text message which is green in color requires the cellular network service.

Speaking about what happens if I turn off SMS on iPhone?

If you turn off SMS on your iPhone, you won’t be able to send sms messages to a phone number activated with iMessage and when iMessage is unavailable.

The send as sms on iMessage or the message app do come in handy if iMessage is not available on your phone or probably the recipient phone due to no internet.

When talking about sms on iPhone, this involves using the cellular network service to send a text message on your iPhone and which requires an active sim card and a network service on your iPhone.

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Before going further into the question of the day on what happens if I turn off SMS on iPhone, firsr I recommend you to understand what sms text message and iMessage mean on iPhone.

Table of Contents

The iMessage

When it comes to the blue text message on iPhone, kindly note that any time you see a blue text message on an iPhone, it simply means an iMessage.

When it comes to sending and receiving texts on your iPhone, iMessage or the blue text messages being an instant messaging service requires or needs an internet connection. This means to send and to receive iMessages you must have an active internet connection on your device be it Wi-Fi or cellular data.

Every iPhone has iMessage, and every iPhone, iPad, and other Apple device has it turned on or activated by default.

You must activate your Apple ID and phone number with iMessage before you can begin using iMessage. Though iMessage is very essential on iPhone or any other Apple device, unless you don’t fancy using the iMessage on your iPhone or any other Apple device.

To Activate iMessage;

First you have to make sure that iMessage is enabled on your iPhone. To do so, open the settings app and scroll down to MESSAGES and open it.

Click on messages and open it.

Options will be presented to you, and right there you will see iMessage. Please make sure that the iMessage button is turned on and which will be green in color.

Also make sure that you have an active internet connection like the Wi-Fi or cellular data on your iPhone or any other Apple device.

Once iMessage is turned on, it will immediately start to active on your iPhone and that shouldn’t take more than three minutes if everything is properly connected.

Immediately iMessage is activated on your iPhone, you will see the number of addresses that is connected to your iMessage account but mostly it will be two and which are your Apple ID and phone number in your iPhone during the activation.

If you have multiple phone numbers like two sim cards, you can connect the two.

Once everything is connected you will see send and receive and which will indicate the number of addresses it is connected to.

Below is an example of what I’m talking about.

You can choose to select the very address which you want to send and receive iMessages.

For example, you may not want to use your phone number for iMessage but rather only your apple id, what you have to do is to tap and open Send & Receive below iMessage.

Tap on the phone number and it will ask if you want to Remove Number from iMessage and Facetime? Go ahead and tap on the remove button and that’s it.

You have to do that on both receive messages and start new conversations.

You can also remove your Apple ID if you only want to use your phone number for your iMessages. So you can customize or set your iMessage receive and send any way you want.

Sending iMessages

Once you have everything in order, it is time to start sending and receiving iMessages on your iPhone or Apple device. Remember, internet connection is required for iMessages and without internet you can’t receive iMessages.

You can only send iMessage to another iMessage user else the text will be sent as sms text message.

To send iMessage on your phone, simply open the message app and enter the recipient apple ID or phone number connected with iMessage and the text will be blue in color.

Advantages of iMessage

Below are the advantages of iMessage;

It uses internet like Wi-Fi or cellular data which is cost effective.
Know when a text message is delivered, opened and read by the recipient.
Being able to send photos, videos, files, documents, etc.
Group messaging is allowed.
Very nice text reactions.
With ios 16, you can unsend a text message on iMessage.

Disadvantages of iMessage

Below are the disadvantages of iMessage;

Only work for apple users.
Can’t send or receive texts when internet is poor or no internet connection.

The sms text message

The next type of text message we have on iPhone is the green sms text message which is the default messaging.

Back then or few years back we only have the sms text message which requires a sim card, cellular network and a texting plan or airtime in order to send a text message.

Sms text message doesn’t neccesarily require activation like the iMessage, but you may need to enable it on your iPhone.

Remember that for sms text message to work, you must have a sim card in your iPhone, a cellular network service and a texting plan or an airtime. This is because the green sms text message send and receive text messages using the cellular network service.

It works on all devices like from iPhone to Android phone, from iPhone to a feature or classic phone.

And this is one major advantage of green sms text message have over the iMessage.

Like I said earlier, before you can send the green sms text message and it is essential to the question being asked on can I turn off iMessage and still text, you must make sure it is enabled on your phone.

To do so;

Open the settings app, scroll down to Messages and open it.

Scroll down a bit and you will see Send as SMS, please make sure that it is turned on just like on the picture below.

Once send as sms is enabled on your iPhone, you can send green sms text messages and receive sms text messages as well.

This is very crucial for the question we have here on what happens if I turn off SMS on iPhone because once this is not enabled on your iPhone, you may not neccesarily send sms text messages on your iPhone.

Advantages;

It works on all platforms and carrier network.
It can be sent when there’s no active internet connection.

Disadvantages;

On iPhone, the green sms text message don’t have a delivery report meaning that you can’t tell if a text message was delivered or not.
You can’t send photos, videos, gifs, files, documents, etc using the green text message except for mms messaging which is poor compared to instant messaging apps and services.
You must have a texting plan or airtime in order to send a green text message.

Right now you have understood the iMessage or the blue text message, and the send as sms green text message on your iPhone.

What happens if I turn off SMS on iPhone?

Now let’s go back to the question of the day and which is what happens if I turn off SMS on iPhone.

Here’s what will happen;

If you turn off SMS on iPhone, you won’t be able to send the green sms text message when iMessage is unavailable on the recipient iPhone or on your iPhone.

What I’m trying to explain here is that if you happen to send an iMessage to a contact on your iPhone and you found out that the sent iMessage was not delivered on the recipient iPhone, you can go ahead and send the message as an sms text message.

All you have to do is to press hold on the sent iMessage and you will see the option that’s says Send as Text Message.

Once you tap on Send as Text Message the iMessage will be sent using the default sms text message which is green in color and requires network service.

Remember, this will only occur if sent iMessage has not been delivered to the recipient. If the iMessage says delivered, you won’t see the Send as Text Message option.

Now if you happen to turn off SMS or probably Send as SMS on your iPhone, you won’t be able to send green text message to another phone number thar is activated with iMessage.

If you try to send a green text message or sms text message on your iPhone, the text won’t get delivered to the recipient phone until you enable send as sms when imessage is unavailable.

Should SMS be on or off on iPhone?

On iPhone, Sms should be on incase iMessage is not available the text will sent using the cellular network service thought it will attract charges.

You may find yourself in a situation whereby there’s no active Wi-Fi or cellular data on your iPhone. I’m this type of situation, sms text message will come to the rescue unless there’s no network service in the area.

Please it is recommended to always make sure that sms or send as sms is available on your iPhone incase iMessage is not available or active on the recipient phone.

Do I need SMS on my iPhone?

The answer is yes. You need sms on your iPhone in order to send sms text messages especially when iMessage is unavailable and sending to a number activated with iMessage.

However, if you don’t fancy sms green text message or probably don’t have a sim card in your iPhone, then there’s no need turning on sms on your iPhone because nothing will work.

Can I turn off SMS on my iPhone?

You can turn off send as sms on your iPhone, but still it won’t prevent you from sending or receiving sms text messages on your iPhone.

On iPhone, if you go ahead and turn off send as sms on your iPhone, you will find out that you can still send an android phone user an sms text message which is green in color. But wont be able to send to a phone number activated with iMessage if iMessage is unavailable.

Should I use iMessage or text message?

Simply use iMessage as it is cost effective, can send pictures, videos, files, etc and has a delivery report, unless you’re sending a text message to a non iMessage user.

If you scroll above you will see that I listed the advantages of iMessage and for me it is the best option for text messaging unless you’re sending a text to an android phone user or a feature phone user.

If the person is using an iPhone, iPad, Mac or the Apple watch I don’t see the reason why you shouldn’t use iMessage unless you don’t have active internet connection on your Apple device.

And this is where I draw the curtain on the question of the day, what happens if I turn off SMS on iPhone. If you don’t fancy sms messaging then you can go ahead to turn it off but I don’t really see the reason and the need to do so.

What happens if I turn off SMS on iPhone? Explained