When I buy a Windows 8 phone, can I still group text with my iPhone friends?

[Andrew Paulus]

I will be getting the Lumia 929 with Verizon (if it ever comes out.....) but I have an iPhone now and I am ALWAYS in a group chat with four of my friends. When I get my Windows phone, can I still group text with them? It would be four iPhone's and one Windows phone...

Thanks!

 

[Jas00555]

Yes, I do it with two people with iPhones. You'll be fine. I think Verizon turns it off by default, though.

 

[JHunsaker]

The group text feature was adding in either GDR1 or GDR2 for Windows Phone 8 so you should be able to group chat with your iPhone friends. However, I have seen a lot of people that move from iPhone to Windows Phone 8 have issues with the iMessage functionality blocking incoming texts all together so you want to make sure to turn that off on your iPhone before switching.

 

[Jas00555]

The group text feature was adding in either GDR1 or GDR2 for Windows Phone 8 so you should be able to group chat with your iPhone friends. However, I have seen a lot of people that move from iPhone to Windows Phone 8 have issues with the iMessage functionality blocking incoming texts all together so you want to make sure to turn that off on your iPhone before switching.

wouldn't iMessage be turned off and switched to SMS by default as soon as the iPhone detected that a they were texting a non-iPhone?

 

[xandros9]

wouldn't iMessage be turned off and switched to SMS by default as soon as the iPhone detected that a they were texting a non-iPhone?

oh no its just that Apple may still think you use an iPhone and push the texts to iMessage and not your non-iPhone device.

here, i group texted with a couple iPhone users, unfortunately, one friend was left out. (she totes a T-Mo GSIII)

 

[Jas00555]

oh no its just that Apple may still think you use an iPhone and push the texts to iMessage and not your non-iPhone device.

here, i group texted with a couple iPhone users, unfortunately, one friend was left out. (she totes a T-Mo GSIII)

ah, I see. I've never had that happen to me though so that's why I hadn't heard of it.

 

[BaritoneGuy]

I will be getting the Lumia 929 with Verizon (if it ever comes out.....) but I have an iPhone now and I am ALWAYS in a group chat with four of my friends. When I get my Windows phone, can I still group text with them? It would be four iPhone's and one Windows phone...

Thanks!

I was doing it with myself with 4 others on iPhones over the weekend. It all worked including the picture. Just make sure the option is turned on in your phone settings.

 

[Chris_Kez]

wouldn't iMessage be turned off and switched to SMS by default as soon as the iPhone detected that a they were texting a non-iPhone?

I don't think iMessage actually detects that the target device is a non-iPhone; rather it references Apple's servers to see what Device ID is associated with a given phone number (or email address). If Apple's servers show your phone number is associated with a recent iPhone (I think iMessage works on iOS 5/6/7), they will keep sending out iMessages to that number- and you will never see any of them. You have to un-link your phone number and/or email from iMessage and that change has to propagate through the system (which I've heard may not always be instantaneous). You need to do this on any and all iDevices that you've used for iMessage. This is my understanding at least- but I've only made the switch once.

To answer your original question, though- yes, AFAIK you can maintain group messages with friends who have iPhones- assuming your carrier enables group messaging and you've turned it on from your settings.

 

[gapost]

iMessage is such a headache when you switch from an iPhone to another device. You have to go in to your Apple settings an deauthorize that old iPhone and even then, it may still not work right. Basically, your iPhone friends will send texts that will be sent as imessages and you will not get them. Boo imessage.