iMessage will not allow me to use my phone number rather than email

[kmswitzer]

I just bought my iPhone 4 yesterday. I absolutely love it. My cousin told me about the iMessage feature and told me to use it! I went to activate it and I cannot get mine to use my phone number rather than my email. I have watched numerous tutorials, but I don't seem to have the same options as everyone else. It tells me to sign in using my Apple ID, which I do, but it doesn't give me a caller ID option. What to do?

[Spiral]

Have you tried? 

Settings - Messages - Receive at - Caller ID

Change that to your phone number rather than email

Looks from your description that you may not have that option - figured it was worth a shot.

Good luck.

[gina7239]

Under messages you can select phone or email.

[gina7239]

Did you sign into you apple I'd ? Do you have iMessage on?

[nickthetric]

thats because i message is all about using wi-fi and data to message instead of voice or text. ill give you an exsample i have a i pod touch i bought for 200 $ almost 3 years ago now and have not spent a penny on it since. now with i message at my home through my wi-fi or a friends and even the local grocery store i can send messages to others or myself free of charge using the i message. its just a e=mail with a fancy name. i love it because verizon is mad that they lose alot of money due to the fact internet is free. they tried to stop apple from putting it out there. same with face time it dosent use verizon at all just broad ban from your house to another with facetime. so with i message and facetime verizon gets nothing cus it dose not use there service i love it. sorry about miss types hope this helps!

[vzw_customer_support]

Congratulations on recently purchasing the iPhone 4! The iMessage feature is a great benefit of the iPhone and provided below are the steps you can take to enable it. In addition you will also want to ensure that you have the latest software version on your device.  

1) Go to settings and tap messages. Turn on iMessages and tap "Use your Apple ID for iMessages.

2) Enter your Apple ID and password and tap sign in. Your phone number and email address is associated with your Apple ID and will be displayed. To ensure that people message you with your phone number and not email address, place a check mark in the phone number section.

Here is a link to Apple's web site with additional information regarding setting up and activating the iMessage feature. http://www.apple.com/ios/messages/

Thank you,

GeorgeP_VZW

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