If you have an iPhone and send text messages to multiple people, then you have probably noticed that some text messages are blue, and some text messages are green. This can be confusing, as you probably didn’t do anything different to send or receive those messages.
Blue messages are actually iMessages, which are slightly different than standard text messages that you sent and received on previous non-Apple cell phones. iMessages are affiliated with your Apple ID, and can actually be sent simultaneously to iOS devices like your iPhone, iPad and MacBook. An iMessage can only be sent between iOS devices. Read more about iMessage here.
Green messages are purely SMS (short messaging service) and were sent by people that are not using an iOS device, or by people that have turned off iMessage on their iOS device.
Now that you know the difference between a blue vs green text on your iPhone you will be able to know certain things about that conversation, including the types of media you can send in that conversation.
Our article on what does sent as text message mean can give you additional information on why a particular conversation might switch back and forth between blue and green message bubbles.
If you have an iPhone and an iPad that are using the same Apple ID, then you might discover that you don’t want to receive iMessages on your iPad. This article will explain how.
There are some advantages to iMessages over text messages, including the ability to sync with multiple devices, as mentioned before. Additionally, if your cellular plan has a fixed number of text messages, then iMessage will not count against that limit. You can also send iMessages to people that have iOS devices, but do not have a cellular plan.
If you do not wish to use iMessage, then you can read this article to learn how to turn it off on your iPhone.
Additional Sources
Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read over 50 million times.
After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.
His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.
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