My daughter has iphone6 and is trying to send us (parents) group text messages. My wife and I both have S7 Edge.
Problem I am having is that I don't want to keep mobile data on the iphone6 because we will exceed mobile data limit quickly. However, when that's turned off she can't send us both a text. Apparently, individual text to one of us does work. However, she said she can't send group text to us. Is that correct?
If that's correct and we have to turn on mobile data for the iPhone 6 (which I don't want to do), is there any we can restrict mobile so it's only on the for the group texting.
We're finding this to be a real issue and had no idea previously.
Please let me know. Thanks.
What you are seeing is correct. A single text message is SMS and does not require data to be active. A group message is considered MMS and must have data active to work. This is true whether you have an iPhone or any other phone, MMS requires data to be active. You don't get charged for the data for the message, but it must be on. No way around this really.
Considerations:
1) Switch to Verizon Plan and activate safety mode. This will have limitless slow data after using up all your plan data and MMS will continue to work.
2) Turn on mobile data, but turn of cellular data usage in all apps (Settings - Cellular)
3) Teach her how to be responsible on data usage
I see where you can turn off cellular data for the specific apps. I've enabled cellular data but turned off for every single app.
Does this mean that only cellular data will be used for the group texting? Is there any scenario where cellular data may be used by doing this?
Please let me know. Thanks.
It can also be used for some system requirements, which you can see in system services.
Items such as hotspot (but only if you turn it on), location services (if you have location services turned on for any apps), voice mail.
Take a look at Settings/Cellular - scroll all the way down to system services and you can see what services will use data. It tends to be smaller amounts. If you turn off location services, it will limit it even more.
Do I have to specifically turn off "system services" in order to avoid having it use cellular data? Where is "system services" located? Is it with the apps or somewhere else?
I see all of the apps and I've turned all of those off.
Just trying to avoid a surprise where something I forgot to turn off uses a bunch of data.
Great question, Atomarchio1. I want to clarify things for you. When you text using data you will want to make sure other applications that use data are inactive if you won't be using them. When you go into your settings, tap data, and turn the switch on you can scroll down to see other applications the use data. If you do not wish to use them you can disable them selectively.
Are there any other questions or concerns we can assist you with today?
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System services are the last item in the long list of apps. you cannot turn this off, as these are the basic services of the phone. As long as you don't use hotspot, these services would unlikely to use a lot of data. You are safe turning off all apps as you did.
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