Sending sms to a contact, but an unknown person receives it

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Level 1

6 points

Sending sms to a contact, but an unknown person receives it

So I just received my iPhone13 pro max today and its my first iphone ever, always had samsung. I understand iMessage, but i have a problem.

In settings, i enabled "send as sms when imessage is not available" because i know some of my contacts have androids. When i create an imessage for an android user, the arrow and contact name turn green, which i know means its going to send as a sms. But for one contact, as of right now, that i know has an android, it doesn't turn green when i send it to them. I dont really want to turn off the imessage setting completely off because for iphone to iphone i do prefer imessage.

So basically i want to know why for that certain contact it keeps sending as imessage. I tried deleting and recreating the contact and restarting my phone, but it still sends as imessage. So, id be thankful if anyone has a solution to this.

iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 15

Posted on Nov 9, 2021 1:36 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

LD150

Level 10

91,051 points

Nov 10, 2021 2:02 AM in response to j_paramo

It will not learn anything. It needs positively de-registering.

Send a message to the unknown person suggesting that if they wish to stop receiving these misplaced messages they should go to Settings, Messages, then turn off iMessage, restart the phone then turn iMessage back on.

Your contact should reach out to Apple Support for further help, if necessary to have their Apple ID deleted if they have no other Apple devices.

here: contact Apple Support

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Answer 2

LD150

Level 10

91,051 points

Nov 10, 2021 12:10 AM in response to j_paramo

Yes you got to where I suspected.! Your contact needs to de-register their old iphone from iMessage.

https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage/

The recipient of their old iphone must be annoyed by now!

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Answer 3

j_paramo Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 9, 2021 4:19 PM in response to LD150

So, when I have iMessage turned on it turns blue, but someone else responds that I don't know. Mutual friends that send that person a text also say that when they send a message someone else responds so they have to turn off iMessage in settings when texting that person. I'm doing that but it gets kind of tedious turn off and on iMessage. So someone on reddit told me they must've had an iPhone before, but this person just bought a new phone (Galaxy s21) and changed their number, so I thought probably the person before had an iPhone still registered on iMessage, so I told them to deregister their number, and they did and they got the code, but still when I text them the message turns blue and the unknown person receives the text. I have other contacts who also have an android but I don't have to turn off iMessage for them. The person on reddit told me to just hold the message and click send as text message and the Messages would just learn that I want to text that person through SMS, but I don't wont to keep bothering that other unknown person who receives my iMessages.

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Answer 4

j_paramo Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 10, 2021 1:50 AM in response to LD150

Oh, cause when I send it, it's still blue. I turn off Wi-Fi and data and it sends as SMS, so if I keep doing that will Messages "learn" that I want to send that contact SMS, cause that's what that person on Reddit said, but I don't know.

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Answer 5

Branta_uk

Level 7

32,666 points

Nov 10, 2021 5:43 AM in response to j_paramo

A wild guess, but look in *your* Contacts entry for the Android using recipient, and make sure their address entry type is not marked as 'iPhone' which might confuse your phone's iMessage decisions. I think LD150 is on the right track, but it wouldn't hurt to check in your settings also.

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