Texting a picture on Iphone5S & Galaxy 5S. Phone data on/off? Wifi on/off? What?

[LisaBa]

I got a Iphone 5S over the weekend and when I tried to send a picture it would not send until I turned my Cell data on.  It would not send when I was connected to Wifi, neither to another Iphone user or to another phone user.

So I think to myself I'll turn this phone back in and get the Galaxy 5S instead.  I had a Droid Incredible before and it sent pics without having to use data.  When I started looking at whether the Samsung would give me problems too I came across a thread that said you would have to turn the Wifi off to send a picture...and all MMS on all phones require data.  Oh and though you have to turn your phone data on it doesn't go against data.  Ok what?  I didn't have to turn on my data to send a picture on my Droid Incredible.  How am I to keep track of whether that's true or not?  And now I have to turn on and off my cell data for every MMS - which doesn't that include texts that have more than a certain amount of characters?  What?

I'm on the lowest data plan there is on my phone.  I have access the internet immediately at work and at home.  I talk and text on my phone.  I take pictures.   Sometimes I Facebook - though honestly I'm wretched at doing that because its hard on the phone.  I look things up - directions, what something is or how much it costs on my phone.  I don't watch TV or movies or listen to music on my phone.  Are these more phones than I need?  I was attracted to them for higher picture quality and my inquisitive mind wondering how much does an average cow weighed and getting an answer by asking without having to type with my thumbs which I find ponderous and slow.

Be gracious please.

Lisa

[vzw_customer_support · Accepted solution]

Both the iPhone 5s and Galaxy S 5 are top of the line devices. It sounds like you have wonderful taste in devices, Lisa.

Turning off Wi-Fi when sending a picture message is a work around to the issue but shouldn't be required to do so. Have you tested picture messages with Verizon Messages?  http://bit.ly/1rTMIls

YosefT_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

[Klue]

Lisa

As YosefT said above turning off Wifi is a work around for some but is not required for everyone if your phone is setup correctly. Your data has to be turned on to send MMS however there is no data used from your account when you send a MMS file. I have the Galaxy S4 and have data and wifi on all the time and my data plan hardly gets used as the phone will always use wifi first if it is available.