I would like to only iMessage with my friends overseas.

[stanny]

I would just like to iMessage with my friends overseas but I am afraid it will send an SMS. Should I turn off the option "Send an SMS when iMessage is unavailable"? But does that mean, I can't SMS with other non-iPhone folk anymore?

 

[vettori]

I would just like to iMessage with my friends overseas but I am afraid it will send an SMS. Should I turn off the option "Send an SMS when iMessage is unavailable"? But does that mean, I can't SMS with other non-iPhone folk anymore?

Yes. But just wait for your friends to activate iMessage and it should always send as iMessage. You notice the difference because bubbles become blue instead of green.

 

[oSutrooper]

The only time it will send an imessage is if the other person that you are sending a message to has ios5,otherwise it will just be an sms