How to selectively force Siri to send iMessage instead of SMS?

I believe that the siri command for imessage is: Message Alice i'll be there soon. This will not prevent it from sending a text message. To prevent it from sending a text message, go into settings --> messages --> and turn off the "Send as SMS" switch.

In her contact it should look like this:

Alice Appleseed

Phone: (XXX) XXX-XXXX

Email: [email protected]

What you need to do is try to message her on one of these accounts.

Try saying: "message alice on her email...I'll see you later"

Then: "message alice on her mobile...I'll see you later"

The point is: you want to state where you want to send the message. If you just say "message Alice", then siri will ask you where you want the message to go.

Since the iPad doesn't have a phone number, you message it through its email address (this will have to send an iMessage). The non-iPhone uses its phone number (this will have to send a text message).

I hope this helps.

Update: Brought to my attention by the author of the original question, the method above: "message alice on her email...I'll see you later" is not fully effective.

Rather, saying it this way:

"message alice on iCloud...I'll see you later"

will send the imessage to Alice's iCloud email address (which must be set up by her as an E-mail address which can contact her via imessage). Note: If I'm correct, the E-mail account used as a contact point does not have to be an iCloud account (although it may be better to use one anyway). For instance, you could use the E-mail account of [email protected], yet label it as an iCloud account in Contacts, and it SHOULD work the same.

Sadly, I have since stopped using Siri, simply because I have been too busy, so feel free to correct me if I am wrong about this all.

Glad I could help. (surprised that you remembered my answer, since it was written a good while ago.)

Get the person to unregister their phone number from iMessage, then the message Alice on mobile request will be semantically valid and will use SMS to their phone.

There is a web page for unregistering phone numbers without an iOS device, but since they have an iPad they should be able to go into their settings and uncheck the phone number.

Under Settings -> Messages -> Send & Receive:

Since the device is an iPad, not an iPhone unlike my screenshot, their phone number should be able to be disabled.