Imessage Without Sim

Apr 10, 2021 How to Use Your Android Smartphone Without a SIM Card There are essentially two ways how you can go about using your Android smartphone without a SIM card. The Google Voice Way. Accessing SMS without access to your mobile is easy! From real estate agencies to doctor surgeries to car dealerships to tradies and builders, SMS management and tracking has always been a nightmare. We all know the logistical horror of trying to manage the “business mobile” – a central mobile phone that someone in admin (often. You can iMessage without a SIM card/phone number on an ipod touch. If it is for the kids I don't see the need for an iPhone. Aaliyahtopp likes this.

Imessage Without Sim
How To Send Imessage Without Sim Card
Imessage Without Sim Card
Use Imessage Without Sim
Imessage Without Sim Card Reddit

Apple iPhones are my suggestion for anyone planning to study or live abroad. Why? Well, Apple’s iMessage and Facetime services have international messaging and voice and video calling built in to others with Apple devices (with no additional fees) and the setup of iMessage and Facetime is simple and user friendly. Bonus: iOS (Apple iPhone’s operating system) has some of the best (and most user-friendly) travel and communication apps.

So, there are two scenarios here that I will cover:
1. You are traveling/moving abroad and want to keep in touch with other iPhone users in the U.S.
2. You know an iPhone user traveling/moving abroad and want to keep in touch with him or her overseas

Want another great international phone tip? Check out this post.

A note about iMessage and Facetime:

Messages is the built-in app on iPhones that handles both SMS-based text messaging (the green bubbles sent to people without iPhones) and data-based iMessages (the blue bubbles between people with iPhones). You can always send SMS-based (green) text messages from your phone number (whether you are using a U.S. or international SIM card) to another person, so long as text messaging is included in your mobile plan. In other words, if you are in the U.S., with a U.S. SIM card and U.S. phone number, sending text messages to U.S. numbers should work perfectly. If you are in Germany, for example, with a German SIM card and a German phone number, sending text messages to German numbers should work perfectly.

Changing the iMessage settings I mention below does not change your text messaging settings. Instead, we are changing how the iMessage (data-based, blue bubbled) system works so that you can text internationally for no additional fees. In other words, if you are in Germany, with a German SIM card, and a German phone number, sending iMessages to a U.S. iPhone should work perfectly. Or, if you are in the U.S., with a U.S. SIM card, with a U.S. number, sending iMessages to a German iPhone should work perfectly.

Facetime is the built-in app on iPhones that handles video and audio calls over data – in other words, calls between iPhones/iPads/Macs that uses up data on your mobile plan, rather than minutes. By following the steps below, you can easily place these video and audio without international fees to international users.

International iMessaging and Facetime calls between iPhone users (having followed the steps below) are free. That is, incurs no additional fees above the regular data fees included your mobile plan. All of the below steps assume you (and the recipient) have data included in your mobile service plans, as all smartphones usually do, and/or you (and the recipient) are sending and receiving iMessages and Facetime calls over wifi, without using up any data.

You are traveling/moving abroad and want to keep in touch with other iPhone users in the U.S.

1. When you purchased and set up your phone, you automatically made your current, U.S. phone number link to iMessage and Facetime. You can check this on your iPhone by going to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > You can be reached by iMessage at: and going to Settings > FaceTime > You can be reached by FaceTime at:

2. If you are still in the U.S., your American phone number should be listed. If so, continue to step 3. If not, check and make sure that a) you have iMessage turned on, under Settings > Messages > iMessage (the switch to the right should be green) and b) you are logged in to your Apple ID, under Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > Apple ID: youremailaddress. If it’s still not working, try this Apple troubleshooting guide.

3. We need to link your email address to your iMessage and Facetime accounts. Under Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > You can be reached by iMessage at: and under Settings > FaceTime > You can be reached by FaceTime at: see if your email address is listed. If so, skip to step 4. If not, click on Add Another Email… and follow the prompts, adding your main email address.

4. Once both your phone number and your email address are listed, scroll down and click on your email address under the Start New Conversations From (Lost? it’s under Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > You can be reached by iMessage at: and under Settings > FaceTime > You can be reached by FaceTime at:). This will make new messages that you send in iMessage to other Apple users, send from your email address, rather than your phone number. Make sure your contacts have your email address in their phones’ address books, so they know its you.

Imessage Without Sim

5. Once you are abroad and have purchased SIM card (did you read this guide?), insert it into your phone (following the carrier’s instructions). Note that at this point, your phone number will change. In other words, the SIM card that identified your phone as the U.S. number (555) XXX-XXXX is no longer active (can no longer receive or send calls/texts/etc), and the new SIM card, that identifies your phone as the overseas number, is active. Hold on to your old U.S. SIM card and store it in a safe place – you can always switch the cards back if necessary.

6. Your iPhone will now add your new overseas number to iMessages (so that you can send and receive messages from this overseas number) and to Facetime (so you can place video and audio calls – over data or wifi – from this overseas number). You can check this under Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > You can be reached by iMessage at: and under Settings > FaceTime > You can be reached by FaceTime at: – both your new, overseas number and your email address should be listed. Make sure that Start New Conversations From has your email address with a check next to it.

7. Start a new message by going to your Messages app, then click the compose message icon (top right of the screen). You should now be able to both send text messages (the SMS green bubbled messages) from your overseas number to other numbers in the same country and send iMessages (the data-based blue bubbled messages) to anyone in the world with an iPhone, iPad or Mac! The Messages app will automatically configure the message into either an iMessage (your contact’s name or number in the to field will turn blue) for iPhone, iPad, or Mac users or into a SMS text message (your contact’s name or number in the to field will turn green) for non-iPhone users.

8. Start a new Facetime call by opening your Facetime app, then selecting your contact, and, scrolling down, choosing either the camera symbol (for a video call) or phone symbol (for an audio call) next to the “Facetime” option.

9. Voila! Enjoy both domestic, overseas texting and international iMessaging and international video and audio calls!

How To Send Imessage Without Sim Card

You know an iPhone user traveling/moving abroad and want to keep in touch with him or her overseas

1. When you purchased and setup your phone, you automatically made your U.S. phone number link to iMessage and Facetime. You can check this on your iPhone by going to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > You can be reached by iMessage at: and going to Settings > FaceTime > You can be reached by FaceTime at:

2. Your U.S. mobile phone number should be listed. If so continue to step 3. If not, check and make sure that a) you have iMessage turned on, under Settings > Messages > iMessage (the switch to the right should be green) and b) you are logged in to your Apple ID, under Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > Apple ID: youremailaddress. If it’s still not working, try this Apple troubleshooting guide.

Imessage Without Sim Card

5. Start a new message by going to your Messages app, then click the compose message icon (top right of the screen). You should now be able to both send text messages (the SMS green bubbled messages) from your U.S. number to other numbers in the U.S. and send iMessages (the data-based blue bubbled messages) to anyone in the world with an iPhone, iPad, or Mac! The Messages app will automatically configure the message into either an iMessage (your contact’s name or number in the to field will turn blue) for iPhone, iPad, or Mac users or into a SMS text message (your contact’s name or number in the to field will turn green) for non-iPhone users.

6. Start a new Facetime call by opening your Facetime app, then selecting your contact, and, scrolling down, choosing either the camera symbol (for a video call) or phone symbol (for an audio call) next to the “Facetime” option.

7. Voila! Enjoy both domestic, U.S. texting and international iMessaging and international video and audio calls!

iMessage is a very intriguing product. It's available as part of iOS 5 for iPod Touch, iPad and iPhone 3Gs, 4 or 4S.

On non-phone iOS devices iMessage provides non-SMS (iMessage) texting services to other iMessage users over either WiFi or, if supported, 3G services. That's like WhatsApp.app, but WhatsApp only works on a iPhone with an active voice service!

On iPhones iMessage has two modes.

In standard mode it supports SMS/MMS messaging as well as iMessage texting. iMessaging is the default when it's supported by the receiving device; you can see what will be used before you compose a message.

Use Imessage Without Sim

In an optional mode you can disable SMS/MMS messaging and go purely iMessage. You may want to do this, for example, if you choose not to pay for AT&T's extortionary 'unlimited' plans. You will still receive SMS messages (20 cents each, including spam text), but at least you won't send any. (You can tell AT&T to turn off all but 'administrative texting' if you want to avoid spam SMS and spam SMS fees.)

In a world where SMS fees exceed AT&T's mandatory minimal $15/month 200MB/mo data plans, iMessage is subversive [1]. For our family, discontinuing our $30 month texting plan and using a combination of iMessage, Facebook Messenger and Google Voice/Text more than pays for my son's data plan and old 3GS.

Siri is nice (more on that in Gordon's Notes, soon), but iMessage is the biggest thing in iOS 5. I would love to know what AT&T thinks of it, and whether those thoughts are printable in a family blog.

Alas, not everything is quite perfect in iMessage and iOS 5.01. Apple's Discussion groups have many complaints about 'waiting for activation'. For example:

... To update on my iPhone-off contract, even though it says iMessage is waiting for activation, I can still iMessage my friend in Australia (and I am in the USA) So I don't know how it's working, but it's working great! Also, another one of my USA friends has an iPod touch with iMessage. It is working flawlessly..

Imessage Without Sim Card Reddit

We had no trouble at all with 3 iPhones with functional SIMs. In an SIM-free iPhone 4 in use as an iPod Touch, however, we got stuck at 'waiting for activation'.

The first time I used the device I think it sent messages, despite the notice. The next day, however, it could not send. I tried various tricks to no avail, including:

reboot phone
remove and restore my son's iCloud credentials and account.
play with location and time zone settings
create a contact card in iCloud with his migrated iCloud ID (@me.com) and specify that in iMessage

Nothing worked. A day later, however, his phone could again send and receive messages -- despite showing 'waiting for activation'.

I don't know how long it will keep working. Apple doesn't truly support use of a SIM-less iPhone as an iPod Touch, which further reduces the (suprisingly) low value of a used iPhone. I'm somewhat optimistic, however, that the current flaky behavior is a bug or a reflection of overloaded systems. I'll update this post as I learn more.

[1] If Apple integrates it with iChat on OS X, and provides a Windows 7 client ... hmm.

See also:

Gordon's Tech: Giving your old iPhone to your kid: working around AT&T's mandatory data plan 11/3/2011
Gordon's Notes: AT&T and the mandatory iPhone tax - even out of contract phones must pay 11/3/2011
Gordon's Tech: AT&T Smart Limits for Wireless is almost worthless 11/4/2011
Gordon's Tech: Turning an iPhone into an iPod touch - keep the original SIM! 11/28/2011
Gordon's Tech: Porting a mobile number to Google Voice 11/21/2011
Gordon's Tech: Testing Facebook Messenger as a texting alternative (4 and 3G) 11/5/2011
Gordon's Tech: iPhone alternatives to AT&T's texting fees 11/11/2011
Gordon's Notes: AT&T’s secret Nov 2009 mobile contract change – Elegant Evil 6/2010
Gordon's Notes: The fear that's driving AT&T's smartphone data plan policies 11/7/2011
Gordon's Notes: iPhone micro: How SMS pricing is accelerating the smartphone transition 11/24/2011