Most people think that if their iPhone is sending green messages, the messages are being sent to a device that Apple doesn’t make. Since this is usually the case, it can be a surprise when your iPhone sends a green message to another iPhone.
If your iPhone messages are sending green, they are sending as MMS/SMS instead of as iMessages. This could happen if iMessage is turned off on either your phone or the iPhone receiving the message or if iMessage is unavailable for a temporary amount of time on either phone.
The rest of this article will teach you more about why these green messages happen, what they mean, and how to fix them. Let’s get into it!
How Do I Make My Messages Stop Sending Green?
There are a couple of solutions to making your messages stop sending green, and it depends on what is causing them to do so in the first place. You may have to turn iMessage back on, send messages strictly from your email, turn off the option to “send as SMS”, or check that the person you’re sending a message to has iMessage enabled on their phone.
Turn iMessage Back On
If iMessage has somehow turned off on your device, messages will have to automatically “send as” MMS/SMS because there is no way to send through iMessage when it’s off. Luckily, turning iMessage back on is pretty simple and shouldn’t take too much of your time.
- Go to “Settings”.
- Click on “Messages”.
- Look at the button next to “iMessage”. It should be green with a circle on the right. If it’s not, click on it.
- When the button is green with a circle on the right, iMessage is now turned on.
If you go to turn iMessage back on but discover that it was already on in the first place, you can try turning it off and then on again by clicking the button twice. If this doesn’t work, you can try one of the other solutions below.
Send Messages From Your Email
Having an iPhone means that it’s easy to send messages from your email instead of from your phone number. SMS texts can’t be sent if you use your email, so this is an easy fix. Here’s how you do it:
- Go to “Settings”.
- Click on “Messages”.
- Go to “Send and Receive”.
- Make sure there is a check next to your phone number and email under “You Can Receive From”.
- Make sure there is a check next to only your email under “Start New Conversations From”.
Turn Off “Send As SMS”
When iMessage isn’t working, your iPhone will automatically send messages as SMS if that setting is turned on. If you turn this setting off, the phone won’t send SMS messages (which are green) anymore. Here is how to do so:
- Go to “Settings”.
- Click on “Messages”.
- Scroll down and find the “Send as SMS” button.
- The button should be gray with a circle on the right (to show it’s off). If it’s not, click the button to turn off the SMS option.
After you turn off this option, your iPhone won’t be able to send messages as SMS if iMessage isn’t working. Hopefully, this fixes your problem with green messages. If not, the problem probably lies with the recipient’s phone.
Have The Recipient Check Their iPhone
If you’ve tried the other solutions above and your iMessages are still sending green, you should check to see if the recipient has their iMessage on. If one iPhone doesn’t have iMessage on, it can make the other phone send green messages or the text(s) to go through.
This is why checking with the person you are messaging can help solve this issue. If they turn on their iMessages and turn off their automatic SMS texts, it should solve the problem of the green texts on both ends.
Conclusion
It isn’t always bad for your messages to send green. For example, if you are texting a device that isn’t an Apple device, the texts will have to send green in order to go through. However, it becomes an issue when your texts are sent as SMS because this might cost you money.
iMessages are free to send whenever you want, but if iMessage isn’t working, you might send messages by MMS or SMS. If this happens, it will go through your cellular provider’s network, and you will probably end up paying money for those texts.
The good news is that SMS messages are usually very cheap. On average, the first 500,000 SMS messages you send and receive will only cost about $0.0075. As you can see, this is a very small sum to pay, but it can be more expensive depending on who your cellular provider is.
