Contributor
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Data usage and group messaging
My daughter and I share a data plan and we seem to go though it very quickly. I've analyzed our usage over a month and I dont feel that we use it that frequently ( while not connected to home or work wi-fi) that we should burn through it so quickly.
I have a couple of quetions since I have a Galaxy and she has an iphone:
When "group messaging" on a Samsung Galaxy phone do messages sent or recived count as data? When I check off "group converstaion" on text I get a message that says "group converstaions will be sent as multi-media"
On the iphone do imessages" use up data when not connected to wi-fi?
sandblaster
ACE - Expert
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64.7K Messages
9 years ago
Neither SMS or MMS (mulit-meda) messages use any of your data plan. An MMS needs a cellular data connection to work but does not count against your data. SMS messages don't even use the cellular data network.
Imessages over the cellular network do use data from your data plan.
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brooklynmom
Contributor
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1 Message
8 years ago
I have the same problem. When I blocked my son's data on his phone, he can no longer send or receive group messages becasue there is data involved. It deosn't make any sense though. I contacted ATT and it is the case.
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pgrey
Master
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3.5K Messages
8 years ago
Per @sandblaster, MMS uses data (and my other response/thread), but doesn't requre a data plan, or even for data to be enabled.
I just tested, and it worked fine, with my data disabled, I can send photo tests (definitely MMS), with no issues.
Maybe you're talking about a non-native (third party) messaging app that's being used? That would almost certainly use data, for ALL messages being sent.
If you want your son to be able to send messages, with data disabled, you need to talk to him about using the native text message app, the one that came with the phone, NOT a third-party app.
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Gary L
ACE - Expert
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16.5K Messages
8 years ago
@pgrey The iPhone messages app does non SMS/MMS text messages when it detects the other phone is an iPhone/iPad/MacBook/iPod Touch. It uses data. I'm not sure what happens when it can't always get data. I've had times when I've lost data and I think it dropped back down to normal texting, but I've never dealt with it long term.
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pgrey
Master
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3.5K Messages
8 years ago
@Gary LText=data, no way around it. Eventually everything will too, we're headed there.
I think as long as you can get even a 2G signal, you can get a text through, it doesn't take much, probably quite a bit less for a long text say, than a 30 second phone call ;-]
Not sure about the iPhone messages app though, if it's a pure-data app (this is pretty much any other communication app, VOIP, text, video, morse-code, etc), then it'd be a problem if there's no data plan. It would seem broken though, if the built-in app on an iPhone can't to MMS without a data plan?
Maybe an AT&T rep can weigh in there, this part goes back to their network protocols more than anything...
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Gary L
ACE - Expert
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16.5K Messages
8 years ago
@pgrey iPhone Messages is both.
If it can see it's an iPhone it uses the internet, if not it sends a text.
A big benefit is Messages will talk to your Macintosh computer and you can see the same messages there too (and on your iPad) and it'll route your text messages too (occasionally that's a problem but it's usually pretty good).
It's pretty much messaging with a few other features (audio and video messages). BUT they've really mixed it up with the new iOS this fall (beta came out yesterday).
http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/06/15/video-see-apples-overhauled-ios-10-messages-with-expressive-text-bubbles-animations-more
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