Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

greganpace

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 9, 2011
137
0
I can't seem to find the answer I'm looking for in any of the threads, but I recently moved to an area that has very bad cellular coverage. We are in a basement, and the only place I get service is if I leave my cell phone on a window sill. Since I have wifi, I should be able to use iMessage to send and receive texts without service, correct? meaning 0 bars, no service (as opposed to no data service) And is it just limited to iPhones or can it be any phone?
 
iMessage is only between iOS devices and it will work on Wifi with no cell service.
 
You can only iMessage those running iOS 5 - iphone,ipad,ipod

It works with wifi - my wifi only iPad does iMessage over wifi
 
There are other apps that works like 'iMessage' also, like Whatsapp, Skype, Ping etc that are also available on other platforms. These should all work over WiFi to.
 
My wife also uses iMessage on her iPhone, but my texts still won't send...
 
There are other apps that works like 'iMessage' also, like Whatsapp, Skype, Ping etc that are also available on other platforms. These should all work over WiFi to.

So if I use these, I send/receive messages through any of the above at home, I get out and use iMessage, they will be synced, right?
 
So if I use these, I send/receive messages through any of the above at home, I get out and use iMessage, they will be synced, right?

These are separate apps - iMessage uses the normal messaging app (native app)

^^^^ What this guy said ^^^^

Different apps, but they may fulfil your need better if you message people who aren't on iOS.


Right, but I am just wondering if I have to totally convert to whatsapp for all future texting or if I can use both.

Yes, you can continue to use both.
 
Yes, you can continue to use both.

Does Whatsapp send to any device or just other Whatsapp users like iMessage? App store implies it is the latter, which doesn't really fix my problem. Am I out of luck for an easy replacement?
 
It can send to any other users who have whatsapp installed. However it's available on more platforms then just iOS.

Skype is also available on more platforms, and available on the computer.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.