# issue with a contact and text messaging

Category: Cell Phone Talk

## Post 1 by battle star queen (I just keep on posting!) on Thursday, 03-Dec-2015 23:34:03

My dad recently switched from an Iphone to a droid. I have changed his number from Iphone to mobile, but when I send him a text, my phone is still sending him an Imessage. Is there any way I can fix this problem without having to erase his number andput it back in to my contacts?

## Post 2 by forereel (Just posting.) on Thursday, 03-Dec-2015 23:54:44

Yes. In contacts change it from iPhone to mobile.
It isn't actually sending them as I Messages, they are text, but if you feel better, just change it in your contacts.
Also he still have an Apple ID, so that is why it looks that way.

## Post 3 by sia fan bp (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Friday, 04-Dec-2015 9:54:24

ah, cuz I have a friend... it's ryan bishop. I was still having the same problem
as the original poster. so... thanks, wayne.

## Post 4 by WillieTheWoof (I'll have the last word, thank you!) on Tuesday, 08-Dec-2015 9:23:46

If that doesn't work call apple and ask them to disassociate that number from iMessage.

## Post 5 by forereel (Just posting.) on Tuesday, 08-Dec-2015 12:13:10

That's an idea.
I wonder if the cellular service couldn't do that as well.
Or the person can go in to iTunes and delete that device under the account settings.
The person would have to do that, so just changing what type it is should work local.

## Post 6 by LeoGuardian (You mean there is something outside of this room with my computer in it?) on Tuesday, 08-Dec-2015 14:26:37

My mother-in-law had a similar issue with her phone. She'd send out texts and at some points people would get what they thought were weird symbols. To me it looked like mime encoding.
And I was correct: Under Settings -> messaging, Short Messaging Service was turned off, so everything was going out MMS. MMS is fine even for texts but the first smiley / emoji character you send it converts to a graphic which means in MMS or email, it sections the message by mime type and adds the data for the graphic -- binary data.
So if a text had text, smiley, more text, seeing as MMS has no "mime end" character, the recipient would just get the text up to the emoji followed by what they think are weird symbols.
This would be true of any phone but she has an iPhone.
As to the iMessage problem, it shouldn't be a problem at your end though I back the suggestion of change the contact's phone number to Mobile instead of iPhone. After awhile, iPhone's servers will heartbeat enough to figure out it's not an iMessage. Clear out the previous messages from that contact if you want, that should help.
All iMessage is, is MMS plus a few sexy features like an automated audio insert -- that Record button -- and the text chat typing indicator.
There's more to it than that but that about sums it up. If he doesn't send emoji and other special characters, you're not likely to get weird characters after awhile. And after a few messages of straight text, the iMessage servers will quit that and your iPhone will not treat his number like an iMessage contact.

## Post 7 by forereel (Just posting.) on Tuesday, 08-Dec-2015 16:30:53

Actually, I'm able to send emoji to anyone and they are understood.
I also receive them from non iPhones, and they are working just fine.

## Post 8 by LeoGuardian (You mean there is something outside of this room with my computer in it?) on Tuesday, 08-Dec-2015 17:28:26

Yes but they send differently if you don't have Short Message Service turned on. Most people do, and it works. The problem is I don't know how she got that turned off, but it's on now and it all works.