Why Are Some Contacts Blue On Android?

As most Android users will know, usually when you’re texting your contacts via the ‘Messages’ app, the messages you send and receive are colored green. However, that’s not always the case. On occasion, you’ll find that the messages are blue. Or, even more confusingly, sometimes they’ll be blue and sometimes they’ll be green. But what does this all mean?

Well, thankfully, we’re here to tell you!

A ‘green’ contact is a contact who uses an iPhone, or another non-Android device, to text. With them, you can only exchange SMS text messages back and forth, as you might expect. On the other hand, ‘blue’ contacts are contacts who, like you, also have an Android phone. When you are connected to the internet (either by WiFi or cellular data) you exchange messages via the internet, rather than via SMS (a little like using WhatsApp, or iMessage for iPhone users). 

However, this is only when you are connected to the internet. If you’re not, and you try to send a text to a ‘blue’ contact on Android, you’ll instead send a ‘green’ SMS text. Likewise, if a fellow Android-using contact sends you a ‘blue’ message, you’ll only receive it when next you are connected to the internet. 

And that’s about all there is to know! If, however, you’re itching for even more information on blue and green Android contacts, or if you have further unanswered questions which you’re burning to have answered, then fear not – check out our FAQs below!

FAQs

Why haven’t my Android blue contacts replied to my text message(s)?

Frustratingly, sometimes you might find that the messages you send through to a ‘blue’ Android contact (i.e. messages sent via the internet, Android-Android) go unanswered for longer than you’re used to with said contact.

The most likely reason behind this is simply that you have sent them an internet message, whilst they’re unconnected to the internet. Since they won’t be able to actually receive or read your messages until they connect to the internet, they may not have replied to you simply because they haven’t got the message yet

To overcome this issue, check for the little ‘Delivered’ and ‘Read’ tags which pop-up to the left of your sent Android blue messages. ‘Delivered’ means that the recipient is connected to the internet and their phone has successfully received your Android-Android message. If you don’t see this when you send your text, try sending it again, only this time with your internet off, so that it sends as a regular green text message instead. 

Once you see the little ‘Read’ tag appear, it means your recipient has received and read your message, and hopefully you can expect a reply fairly soon.

Can you send texts to blue Android contacts even without an internet connection?

Yes! Absolutely. You can indeed send texts to blue Android contacts even without an internet connection. Just because you can send Android-Android over-the-internet ‘blue’ messages to someone doesn’t mean that this is all you can send. You can always still opt to send regular green text messages as well, which operate as normal texts to non-Android-using contacts do. 

Does it cost to send text messages to blue Android contacts?

When you’re connected to the internet, the SMS messages you send to your ‘blue’ fellow Android-using contacts will be sent for free. They will not count toward your phone bill, nor be counted in the allotted number of text messages you pay for in your contract.

However, if you send an SMS message to a ‘blue’ Android contact, but the message you send is ‘green’ (i.e. a regular text), then yes: this will cost your standard network rate if you are a Pay-As-You-Go customer, or will count toward your number of allotted text messages if you are a Pay-Monthly contracted customer.