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I need to send texts to my kids while they are away from Wi-Fi. I pay for a text message service through my carrier, but can't force my phone to send a text message instead of an iMessage with iOS 10.

So are all our iPhones incapable of sending text messages to people without data plans now?

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On all of your iPhones go to Settings > Messages.

You will see an option to Send as SMS. Toggle this on so your messages can be sent as normal text messages when the iMessage service is unavailable.

Hope this helps.

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  • Yes - thanks - I know about that... but super annoying to have to do that whenever I want to send a text to my kids. Plus I don't always know if they are home with WIFI or not. To make it additionally difficult, when I do send them an iMessage it tells me its been delivered, even when it hasn't.
    – Loz100
    Commented Oct 5, 2016 at 14:45
  • You don't have to do those steps each time you want to send a text message. You switch it on and leave it on. It then only sends a text whenever it can't send an iMessage. Also, your comment about the system telling you that an iMessage has been delivered when it hasn't is new information that wasn't in your original post, and is a different issue. Have you tried toggling iMessage off in your Settings, exiting, rebooting your iPhone and then toggling iMessage back on? Also, are there multiple devices with your kids details (eg an iPod or MacBook etc that the messages are also delivered to)?
    – Monomeeth ♦
    Commented Oct 5, 2016 at 20:11

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