mycingular.net did not encrypt this message, message sent as email

Question

I am receiving normal messages that should be arriving as txt instead on my personal email(gmail) messages from another Iphone User. They should be arriving as messages. He told me he sends the messages exactly the same way as if any txt to anybody else.

His phone is set as a backup for recovery of my gmail email. (only added this info in-case it is pertinent). I also own a iphone 5 with software ios at 7.0.4

For some reason eveytime he sends me a message from his iphone 6 it sends it like this. But if i initiate the message he then talks with me as if just any other txt(sms) to txt(sms) conversation.

Is there something i can suggest for him to do to change on his phone so this doesn't happen anymore?

Here is what link appeared when i click on the encryption message in the picture: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6330403?visit_id=1-636304498701265550-1987472819&p=tls&hl=en&rd=1

Edit: 5/16/17 UPDATE

Talked with my friend, we ran a few test scenario's everytime we tries to send me a direct txt to my phone line it still sends to my email. Does he have to delete my contact and re-enter it? This is really strange.

Answer 1

I've had this happen a few times, and it's always been a problem with the carrier (not the phones or Apple's services). His carrier (Cingular) is sending the text message as if it were an email; this clear from the address @mms.att.net.

Thus, I suspect it has nothing to do with data in contacts apps on the phones. Similarly, the encryption warning is irrelevant.

Whenever I've experienced this before, it has fixed itself. That is, suddenly texts begin working properly.

Your friends should make sure he has run the latest updates on his iPhone. If that doesn't fix it, resetting network settings might force some carrier updates. (See Settings > General > Reset.)