I'd like text over WiFi....

[26kick]

I am on Sprint with a 2013 Moto X and I would like to receive (and send) texts over wifi while in airplane mode. I'm on a cruise ship and have awesome wifi but no cellular service. My friends with iPhones text perfectly back and forth to home and with each other with iMessage over wifi. I am the Android guy and am stuck! The laughing stock, you might say. That's not cool, Android.

I have researched this and cannot find an answer. The key is to be able to receive text messages sent to my primary number, not my Google number, from someone who does not know I am away and without cell service. In other words, they could use Facebook Messenger but don't know that they have to in order to get a hold of me.

Is there an option that I'm missing? I wouldn't mind having to pay for incoming texts just to know that I'm not missing an important message from home while I'm in the middle of the ocean. Plus to become able to communicate with the rest of my iPhone friends would be great. Thanks!

Posted via Android Central App

 

[anon(5600632)]

Airplane Mode turns off all of your radios including WiFi. I thijnk you mean you have WiFi but no cell data network.

The short answer is no, you can't break into the iMessage over WiFi club. This is a powerful way that Apple holds onto its iPhone users. Even if you used another wifi texting app, like GV or Hangouts or Whats App, you still can't communicate directly with iMessage over WiFi - your friends would need to agree on the same alternative app. Ask LH: How Can I Access iMessage On Android? | Lifehacker Australia

 

[26kick]

Thanks to both of you for responding! Anyone else have any ideas?

KCAndroid1 - unfortunately, I think your answer is correct. I found that exact same article during my research. Bummer! I still don't quite get how Apple is to gain by keeping iMessage separate from SMS like that. 99 percent of the time, when a cell signal is available, everything works in harmony. But in this wifi bubble, my iPhone friends can receive messages from home and I cannot. However, I believe they cannot receive messages from home from Android users, correct? I'm not sure. The main point still is that I cannot receive text messages from home.

Which leads me to yeppie- of course I can easily use Facebook Messenger to communicate with home and my iPhone friends....almost everyone (unfortunately, convincing them to completely switch to using facebook Messenger instead of iMessage during this trip for little old me will not happen. I think Apple users are extremely loyal to their brand. For good reason, they paid a pretty penny for it. ) And I can call very inexpensively using Skype. Which is great! But that is far from the solution I'm looking for. In the scenario where someone at home does not know that I I am out of cellular range, I will not receive their messages and they may think I am ignoring them.

Thank you again for the responses! I am still looking for that ever evasive solution.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[sting7k]

Thanks to both of you for responding! Anyone else have any ideas?

KCAndroid1 - unfortunately, I think your answer is correct. I found that exact same article during my research. Bummer! I still don't quite get how Apple is to gain by keeping iMessage separate from SMS like that. 99 percent of the time, when a cell signal is available, everything works in harmony. But in this wifi bubble, my iPhone friends can receive messages from home and I cannot. However, I believe they cannot receive messages from home from Android users, correct? I'm not sure. The main point still is that I cannot receive text messages from home.

Which leads me to yeppie- of course I can easily use Facebook Messenger to communicate with home and my iPhone friends....almost everyone (unfortunately, convincing them to completely switch to using facebook Messenger instead of iMessage during this trip for little old me will not happen. I think Apple users are extremely loyal to their brand. For good reason, they paid a pretty penny for it. ) And I can call very inexpensively using Skype. Which is great! But that is far from the solution I'm looking for. In the scenario where someone at home does not know that I I am out of cellular range, I will not receive their messages and they may think I am ignoring them.

Thank you again for the responses! I am still looking for that ever evasive solution.

Posted via Android Central App

The bottom line is you need to use a cross platform messaging app that is not SMS. Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, Skype, Whats App, etc.

That said, you paid money to be on that cruise. Turn off your phone and enjoy it. Just MHO.

 

[anon(5600632)]

Whichever one you can persuade your friends to use.
It will be hard to persuade your iPhone friends to change because they are unaware that there's a problem. Because MOST of their friends have iPhones, they receive MOST of their messages via iMessage, and don't realize they are missing the ones from non-Apple devices. Just another interesting feature of Apple's walled garden.

 

[Rukbat]

As Vishnu said, SMS is a 2G function, not a data function, so it can't be done over wifi. And iMessage is so proprietary that even if someone clean-room duplicated it (just kind of figured out how to make an app that worked hat way), Apple would probably be willing to spend a few billion dollars to keep the app from being released (by tying it up in the courts until the developer had no living descendents).

The only solution other than using a wifi messaging app is to give everyone your email address, and let them know how long you'll be gone. (If you don't want to be bothered by them after the trip, use a temporary email address.)

 

[eric1cc]

This is one feature I wish we could have had implemented long ago. I have WIFI just about everywhere I go but some of these locations I don't have cell service. If Apple can do it I know Android can. Why has this not been done already?

 

[Daniel Mott]

I know this post is a few months old now but Verizon customers can use message+ from Verizon and text over WiFi. I am not sure why more sms apps don't have this feature but it is nice to use. I work in the basement of a hospital so I have no cell phone signal. The app doesn't have the best design but it works well for me at work and allows me to not force people to use a different app to communicate with me at work.

 

[7wendyz7]

You can try GoSms Pro for android. It has a feature of where you can send and receive regular sms to mobile numbers using wifi connection. I

 

[MaccaBird]

I know this post is a few months old now but Verizon customers can use message+ from Verizon and text over WiFi. I am not sure why more sms apps don't have this feature but it is nice to use. I work in the basement of a hospital so I have no cell phone signal. The app doesn't have the best design but it works well for me at work and allows me to not force people to use a different app to communicate with me at work.

Is this something special that Verizon can do, as they own the app and the service you're using? Meaning, could Google (or any other SMS app developer) put SMS over WiFi into their texting app?

 

[Usproptrader]

The magic jack app now has text . phone calls from a cruise ship over satellite work well too. If you pay the $10 you can call international from there too. I phoned the UK from the Caribbean and it was very clear.