How to selectively force Siri to send iMessage instead of SMS? In this question, I asked how to have Siri specifically send an SMS message to a person who does not have an SMS-capable iOS device registered with Apple, but does have iMessage on e.g. an iPad.

The answer was to say e.g. "Text Alice on mobile I'll be there soon," since "Text Alice" or even "SMS Alice" would not force Siri to use any specific mechanism.

However, we could not discover what magic word one could use in place of "mobile" to force the opposite effect: sending an iMessage instead of an SMS.  Words I've tried include:


email
iMessage
iOS
iPad


All of the above result in a message containing the magic word, e.g. "Text Alice on iMessage I'll be there soon" results simply in a message reading "On iMessage I'll be there soon."

Does anyone know what the magic word is for iMessage, if there is one?  Such a magic word would allow me to use Siri to send my choice of an SMS or an iMessage to Alice, since Alice carries both a non-Apple mobile phone and an iPad, though she does not necessarily have both on her or online at any given time.
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: aliceappleseed@xxxxxxx.net



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 johnny.appleseed@example.com, 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.)