When you switch from an iPhone to an Android device, people can still send you iMessages like you had an iPhone. However, since you don’t have one, those messages will never get to you, at least, until Apple allows Android users to use iMessage.
Since the feature is still unavailable to devices other than Apple’s you must find a way to close your iMessage account to switch to regular SMS messaging with your iPhone-using contacts. Apple refers to the process of closing your iMessage account to enable regular SMS messaging as deregistering iMessage.
It only makes sense that the first thing former iPhone users try to learn after switching away from Apple’s walled garden is how to deregister iMessage. In this article, I’ll show you how to go about deregistering the email and phone numbers you have associated with iMessage, both if you have an iPhone and if you no longer have one.
How to Deregister an iMessage Phone Number
The best practice when trying to deregister a phone number associated with iMessage is doing that before letting go of your iPhone if you’ll ever let go of it. Using an iPhone doesn’t mean you have to keep using iMessage; if you’re sick of its awesome features, you can also deregister your iMessage phone number.
Another crucial thing to note is that deregistering your iMessage will automatically make it impossible to use FaceTime with that number. Anyone trying to reach you on most of Apple’s communication services will have to put up with an unavailable message.
Back to the discussion at hand, it’s pretty easy to deregister your iMessage if you still have your iPhone (not that it’s difficult otherwise). With that said, here are the steps required to deregister a number with iMessage on your smartphone.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone and scroll down until you get to the list of apps on your device.
- Select Messages from the list; it shouldn’t take a lot of scrolling. After selecting that, you’ll want to find and tap the Send & Receive option from the Messages settings.
- On the resulting page, you should see all the phone numbers currently connected to iMessage on that iPhone. If any of them is active, it should be signified by a checkmark on it. Tap on the number you intend to Deregister and select Remove from the options that appear.
When tapping Remove, you’ll notice that the warning box appropriately warns that the number will no longer be used for either FaceTime or iMessage. That way, you can rest assured that the number is deregistered for both services and there’s no reason to try doing the same via the FaceTime section of the Settings app.
If you’re willing to dig around a bit, you’ll notice that you can complete the same steps via the FaceTime section of the Settings app. Like on the iMessage section, deregistering a number from the FaceTime section also removes it for both iMessage and FaceTime.
How to Deregister iMessage Phone Number without iPhone
If you notice, you’ll need your iPhone to follow through with the steps in the preceding steps, which is quite logical. However, if you’ve mailed your device to a random buyer out in the Maldives, trying to get it back simply to deregister your iMessage phone number seems counterintuitive.
Thankfully, Apple knows too well that you might have sold your device to a faraway buyer, and they made provisions for deregistering the phone number associated with your iMessage account without having access to your iPhone.
To follow through with the steps in this section, however, you’ll need a phone and an internet connection. An internet connection for accessing the webpage for deregistering your iPhone and a phone for receiving a confirmation message. Once you have both ready, follow the steps below to deregister your phone number with iMessage.
- Open the Apple “Deregister and Turn Off iMessage” official support page. You can access the page by following the link above, either on a smartphone with an internet connection or on any computer.
- On the page, you’ll see some instructions for deregistering iMessage from your iPhone; ignore those and scroll to the bottom of the page. There, you’ll see a “No longer have your iPhone?” section designed to help you with deregistering iMessage from non-Apple devices.
- On this section of the page, select the appropriate country code for your country and enter your phone number in the provided section. After entering the number, click or tap on the Send Code to the right of the text box provided for your number.
- You should receive a 6-digit number as a text from Apple. To confirm that you indeed own the number, enter the phone number you received onto the provided box for the confirmation code. If you haven’t received one, you can choose to resend the code.
- When you enter the code correctly and click on Submit, your request should be successful and you should be able to use the phone number with regular SMS.
Since we’ve not tried this option practically, we’re not sure if it also deregisters your phone number from FaceTime. If you care so much about that, you could simply text all the contacts that frequently FaceTime you to tell them that you’ve gotten off the platform; problem solved!
READ MORE: How to Send Location on iMessage
READ MORE: How to know if someone blocked you on iMessage without texting them
Conclusion
One of the first things you’ll have to do when switching away from the Apple world is deregistering iMessage and FaceTime to ensure people don’t try to reach you from those services. There are several ways to go about it, but the easiest way depends on what device you’re currently using.
If you’re on an iPhone, you may want to deregister iMessage from the Settings app on the iPhone. Alternatively, you can use the officially Apple Support page for deregistering your phone number from iMessage, which works equally as well as when you’re using an iPhone. This article shows you how to do both with relative ease.