Apple‘s iMessage service is integrated into the Messages app on the iPhone. And although it is usually activated by default, it is possible to deactivate certain features separately, and even deactivate the iMessage service on our phone , to only leave SMS communications open. So today we tell you how you can do it.
Disable iMessage on your iPhone
Before starting the process, we are going to put on the table some information that you have to know. First of all, although there are Apple apps that can be deleted, on the iPhone it is not possible to delete the Messages application . Although iMessage is integrated into that app, through Messages is where we can receive SMS, which is still, in some cases, an important function on our phones.
The second thing to know is that iMessage can be linked in several ways : you can do it through your Apple ID email, you can do it with your “@icloud.com” domain (the one Apple assigns to you when you open your ID). from Apple, and it is a free feature), and you can also do it through a phone number. This last contact method is activated when we activate an iPhone and associate it with our Apple ID, or when we create our account for the first time from the iPhone.
You can deactivate contact methods.
The first method to disable iMessage on iPhone is to do it partially. What do you mean partially? Well, we are only going to deactivate contact channels through which we can send and receive messages, but we are not going to deactivate the iMessage service in its entirety. To do this, go to Settings> Messages.
In the Messages menu, we have to go to the Send and receive section. Within that menu we get two groups of different options. The first is called “You can receive iMessages and respond with”, and the contact methods that we have activated appear. To delete one of them, we just have to click on it . If we want to disable emails, all we have to do is click on those that we want to stop using. But if we want to stop using our phone number, we will be asked for a double confirmation. This happens since Apple tells us that we can continue using it to send and receive conventional calls and SMS, but it will be disabled from iMessage and also for FaceTime.
In the same way, in the “Start new conversations from” section, we can choose how the person to whom we are going to send a message through iMessage sees us. Here we can select and deselect emails. But in the case of the telephone number, we are not going to be asked for that double confirmation here.
Disable iMessage completely
To completely disable iMessage on the iPhone is very simple. In the Settings> Messages menu we will see a button called iMessage , which we will have to press to deactivate the service on our iPhone. If we deactivate iMessage, but we want to activate it again, we will have to reselect the same contact methods that we had selected. When we activate it again, Apple automatically selects the contact routes.
This setting differs from the previous one, since if we deactivate a contact method, it will apply to all Apple devices. These methods will be disabled in our Apple ID. But instead, this section just disables iMessage on the iPhone. If we have it activated on the rest of our devices, we can continue using the service normally. Only on the iPhone we will stop receiving messages.