IPhone – iMessage routing with multiple devices – Forcing SMS delivery

iphonemessagessms

I have a relative who is currently travelling abroad. They are not using data roaming on their iPhone, but occasionally grab some hotel of coffee shop WiFi.

I have a problem communicating with them that is essentially as follows:

  • When they message me using a data connection, I get an iMessage as I should
  • If they are still on the data connection when I reply, they will receive it
  • If they are not on a data connection, it will sent to me via SMS
  • When I reply to that SMS, I know that they have left their iPad turned on at home, and thus all messages shows as delivered because they are getting to that device first, and not to her phone, ergo I cannot text her

Is there a way I can force a message to be sent to a recipient as an SMS message if they have their phone number configured to be a receiving address on a second device that is active and therefore receiving the messages over data first?

Best Answer

The possible solution for this is turn your network off for a moment, and try sending it as an SMS, if it goes good, else hold the blue bubble for a second and tap on "Send as Text Message". I use to do this for iOS 5, I am not sure if this has updated for iOS 7 as I haven't tested till now.