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
Begin the troubleshooting process by restarting your device. Rebooting the device.
Want another great international phone tip? Check out this post.
A note about iMessage and Facetime:
- You will need a SIM card and SMS service with a supported carrier to initially activate iMessage on an iPhone. IMessage activation on an iPhone requires an SMS message. Once activated it should continue to work with an iPhone with the SIM removed, although obviously not with your telephone number, but over wifi.
- If your iPhone is failing to activate iMessage or FaceTime, make sure you activated SMS messaging on your phone. Go to Settings Messages and toggle on MMS Messaging and Send as SMS. Also, check that your mobile plan includes SMS service. On iPhones, iMessage activates using SMS so it cannot initiate without it.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
In this modern era of internet and technology, everything seems to be possible. Whether you want to send any document to anyone or you want to do a video call, you can do it very easily just by using the internet. It allows us to use the enhanced communications mediums regularly. In this article, we are going to know whether it is possible to receive text messages without the help of a physical mobile device and a sim card. This seems like an impossible thing to do. But it is a possible thing to do. You have a variety of choices to get this work done easily.
And along with this, there are various benefits too of doing this. First of all, we must know how does the process of sending and receiving SMS occurs.
What is an SMS?
SMS (Short Messaging Service) is the text messages sent and received generally within two mobile devices with the help of a SIM card. Just like a phone call, the process of sending text messages starts with the mobile phone with a written set of texts and a command to send it on the desired phone number.
The request is then received by the network provider with the help of a working wireless connection. The SMS data is sent in the form of packets and it is received at the receiving terminal in the same form. The sim card and mobile phone of the recipient receive these data packets and decode them to show the desired information.
In this process, we see that the main parameters of receiving SMS are SIM cards and mobile phones. But, now the question is whether we can do it without the help of a SIM card or not? The answer is Yes. Let’s know how this all is done with the help of internet.
What are the ways to receive text messages without a SIM card?
We can easily receive the desired SMS without using a physical sim card. Instead of this, we can use VOIP numbers. These (Voice Over Internet protocol) numbers allow us to use the exact facilities which we get in our ordinary mobile phones.
These numbers work like the original numbers but they operated on an online basis using the internet. They are fully authorized and can be used to do any type of process. Receiving the SMS is also easy with the help of these numbers. Now the next question arises that how we can find these VOIP numbers to receive our SMS. We will discuss the same things in the below paragraph.
The best medium to receive text messages for free
Now, when you are fully aware of the whole working and application process of online phone numbers, we want to give you the best mediums to find these services. You just have to find the online websites offering the online phone number services to their users.
In this way, you can easily be able to receive your SMS without using a phone or sim card. You just need an active internet connection along with a PC or mobile phone to surf that website. Now, let’s know what is the best medium to receive your SMS without the SIM card.
Use FreeTemp SMS to easily receive your SMS without any hassles
Free Temp SMS is a leading free phone number provider platform. It allows users to get world-class services for temporary mobile numbers without any cost. Once you use this website, you will easily understand how the whole process of receiving SMS online works.
This website will give you easy access to different VOIP numbers for various countries. According to your needs, you can use them to make your work easier. The website does not have any restriction for using the services. You can use the given numbers for any purpose for any number of times. In this way, it becomes the best way to receive your SMS easily just by using the internet.
How to use FreeTempSMS?
The usage process of TempSMS is pretty easy. You will understand its working easily once you utilized it for a single time. It will allow you to use it for several times without any hassles of verifications or payments. TemporarySMS is made for your convenience and it is giving its best to ensure those services. You just have to follow the below procedure to start using this website.
- Go to the website homepage by clicking on the link (www.freetempsms.com)
- Now, select the country according to your choice from the given list on the homepage
- Copy any number from the given list and fill it from where you want to receive the SMS i.e. try the number to receive any message including the verification messages
- Now confirm the request after filling the mobile number
- Click on view SMS and your desired SMS will be there with other messages
How To Activate Imessage Without Sim
It is the whole process to use this wonderful online, free phone number resource. Make sure to use it only for genuine purposes. These websites are created to make our work easier not for any other illegal activity.
Can U Do Imessage Without Sim Card
Final Verdict
We hope that now you will be fully aware of how to receive the SMS without using a SIM card. Make sure to share your feedback about the article in the comment section. Also, let us know whether you start receiving your SMS using FreeTempSMS or not.
How To Send Imessage Without Sim Card
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