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iPhone 8/Plus What happens to iMessages when switching carriers?

Z

zipazane

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 26, 2016
15
8
Have an AT&T iPhone 8+ that I have an unlock code for as I will be switching from AT&T to T-mobile. Is it as simple as switching out the sim card or do I need to do something else to keep existing messages/send and receive new ones?

Thanks
 
Well, iMessage has nothing to do with your carrier at all. You can be reached via your phone number, because an alias is essentially created on Apple's end linking your phone number to your Apple account.

I've only ever tried switching operators keeping my number, but I'd assume it auto-detects it's a new number and just works it out.
 
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casperes1996 said:
Well, iMessage has nothing to do with your carrier at all. You can be reached via your phone number, because an alias is essentially created on Apple's end linking your phone number to your Apple account.

I've only ever tried switching operators keeping my number, but I'd assume it auto-detects it's a new number and just works it out.
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I'm keeping the same number. Just want to know if I need to do something else since I'm switching carriers.
 
zipazane said:
I'm keeping the same number. Just want to know if I need to do something else since I'm switching carriers.
Click to expand...
I switched from Sprint to T-Mobile in 2015. We backed up old phones and restored to new phones. Don't recall missing any messages in between - although there was a four hour period before I could head to the store and port out. During that time both old and new phones were off.

iMessage found our phones without an issue. It was SMS that I had to go back to every freakin' account it was registered with (doctors offices, etc) and start things over again.
 
The beauty of iMessages is that they have nothing to do with your carrier. There're sent through the internet (wi-fi or data), not through your cellular service provider like SMS texts. You can turn off cellular reception all together (ie. Airplane mode) and just activate wi-fi and still send and receive iMessages like normal.
 
casperes1996 said:
If you keep the same number, there's literally nothing different from the perspective of iMessage
Click to expand...

Exactly. When I moved from AT&T to T-Mobile two years ago, nothing was needed on my end. Just popped out my AT&T SIM and inserted the T-Mobile SIM and activated the latter on my iPhone.
 
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