Texting the entire ward - fact or fiction?

[kmilleca]

Would love to get some clarity on this topic from someone who knows how these systems work.

I've heard a couple "secrets" about how to text everyone in the ward:

• If you have Wi-Fi Calling enabled on your iPhone, LDS Tools will use iMessage to send your texts and you can successfully send to 100s of numbers (the entire ward).
  Same as above but iMessage will only send to other members with iPhones ... and 10 users (or whatever your plan allows) who do not have iPhones

Just trying to sort out the facts from the urban legends as our ward works to improve communication with it's member base.

Thanks in advance!

[kmilleca]

I just found an article* that leads me to believe that some of the above is true:
-- If you use an iPhone (or iPad for that matter) you can send iMessages to other Apple users, aka those with iPhones that have iMessage enabled.
-- Other users on your list (those without the ability to receive iMessage communications, will be routed through the texting function on your phone. Unfortunately, most phone plans limit group texts (my limit is 10) so if more than 10 users on your distribution list cannot receive iMessages, 10 text messages will be sent and the rest will be discarded.

* https://itstillworks.com/imessage-nonip ... 21863.html