How to stop sending via iMessage?

[No-One]

Not entirely, I'll explain. One of my friends has recently moved from an iPhone 4 to a Galaxy S4 and kept the same phone number. Every time I go to text him my iPhone always tries to send via iMessage. I've edited his contact so that it's just listed as an ordinary mobile number and not iPhone but it still does it. Every time I have to tap the message and select "Send as text message". Does anyone know how to fix this?

 

[imb4tman]

Have you tried sending the sms as a Imessage and letting it fail? It might then permanently revert to sms.

 

[No-One]

I'll give that a go...

 

[Faded]

Any chance they also have iMessage set up on an other device like an iPad?

 

[kidscruff]

Hey dude,

your friend almost certainly has his old mobile number still registered with Apple's iMessage server. Hence your phone keeps trying to send via iMessage.

Your friend can do 3 things:

Put his SIM card back into an iPhone, go through the set-up and iCloud process, then go to settings and turn OFF (deactivate) both iMessage and Facetime. This will effectively de-register his mobile number with those services (best to do this before switching phones in the future).

..or... (easiest)

Go to https://appleid.apple.com, sign in and reset your password.

Should 'reset' all services so that they will ask for the new password to re-register (if he ever tries to use Apple services)

..or... (never tried this)

Supposedly go to: https://supportprofile.apple.com/MySupportProfile.do, sign in, select his phone and click unregister.

 

[No-One]

Thanks for that. Ill show him your post the next time I see him