Text messages appearing green on an iPhone mean the messages are sent as SMS (Short Message Service) or MMS, not using Apple's iMessage system, which normally shows messages in blue bubbles. This can happen for several reasons:
- The recipient is using a non-Apple device (like Android), so iMessage is not available, and the message falls back to SMS.
- iMessage is turned off on the sender's or recipient's iPhone.
- There's poor or no internet connection preventing iMessage from working, so the message sends as SMS.
- iMessage service is temporarily unavailable or there's a software glitch.
- Group chats that include non-Apple users will show all messages as green SMS.
- If you have a new iPhone or changed phone number/carrier, iMessage settings might need updating.
So, green messages essentially indicate that the message was sent using cellular SMS text messaging rather than the internet-based iMessage service.
