Not too long ago, there were a couple of iMessage service outages. When that happened, I (and many other folks, I bet) wasn’t able to send out my iMessages. The little red exclamation point would show up, mockingly, and I waited for the service to go back online to send them again.
Luckily, there is a way to easily turn that iMessage into a regular SMS text message, thereby avoiding any service outages from Apple. Here’s how to do just that.
When you get a stalled text message, you’ll usually see a Sending progress bar across the top. When that Sending bar is active, tap and hold on your blue iMessage. When you do, a pop up menu will appear, with two options: Copy, and Send as Text Message. The second option will attempt to send the iMessage as regular old SMS, via your cell data plan, just like it does when texting a friend without an iOS device.
When iOS text-to-speech is enabled, you’ll have to tap the right-facing arrow to get this same popup option.
So, if you have iOS 6 and up, you can force your iPhone to send those iMessages along, just with the normal SMS system that comes with your data plan. It will, of course, use up a message credit, so if you have a low cap, be sure to be aware of this.
Via: OS X Daily
