12-09-2011, 11:50 AM

My iPhone 4S is receiving duplicate messages from the same contact (also iOS5/iMessage user) via iMessage and SMS at the same time.

For example, I would send a message as an iMessage.

My friend would reply via iMessage and shortly after, I would receive the very same message but as an SMS. In the screenshot below, you can see that I have received the same message twice in different formats.

It seems like its toggling between iMessage/SMS. I have verified that the iMessage was flipped to "yes." I have also turned off iMessage and turned it back on again with no success. This has been happening to multiple people sending me messages (all of whom use iOS5/iMessage).

Does anyone else have a similar issue? Does anyone have any suggestions as to what could be wrong?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

12-14-2011, 11:12 AM

I've had the same issue. I've also had the issue where some text go out as an SMS message rather than an iMessage. I do a lot of international travel so iMessage is handy. However, I've found that sometimes the iMessage won't go through. I've had the same issue on the reception. Then when I get home the returning messages will flood in as SMS.

I called Apple and they said that they're not having any issues with iMessage. Their fix was to turn off iMessage and then turn it back on. If that doesn't work they want me to do a data reset. The problem there is that all your saved passwords will be deleted. So I've been waiting to see if more people complain about this before I get too agressive in fixing this.

12-17-2011, 10:06 PM

I have the same issue. My wife and I have noticed it switching back forth randomly for a few days now.

12-18-2011, 03:02 AM

The phone auto-sends the message as SMS if iMessage is unavailable. My best guess is that the iMessage has already been sent anyway and will get delivered eventually when the service (on wireless or 3G) is available again. The SMS is a sort of fail-safe back-up

Try turning the SMS off and see what happens.

12-18-2011, 11:48 AM

I've done that. I use mine overseas often. So I had data turned off and I've turned off SMS. When iMessage is having issues I get a send error. I try to resend and it will often fail. I've also noticed this. Sometimes, when I have SMS turned on, the iMessage will send and then later it will change to green. Thus the iMessage failed and it tried the other method.

This all cost me a few dollars to figure out. When overseas I often log on to the local carrier and then all recieved message are free. Also when a call comes in you can see who called and call back later via Skype. The downside is that when you iMessage via WiFi, if you don't get that iMessage to send then it will send an expensive SMS message through that carrier. So I'm constantly changing settinds as messages come in and go out. I wish Apple could design a settings app where we could instantly depower or set the phone up for cost savings.

Bigfoot