EMAIL_REQUIRES_IMESSAGE - Blujay API

HTTP status	Retryable
`400`	No

What happened

The message is to an email address, and email addresses can only be texted over iMessage. Either preferred_service asked for SMS or RCS, or the message would start a group that can only be an SMS group because someone in it can’t get iMessages.

How to fix it

For a direct message, leave preferred_service out or set it to iMessage. For a group, remove the email address, or the people who can’t get iMessages, and send again.

Example response

An illustrative example. The message wording and the contents of details vary; branch on error.code.

{
  "status": "error",
  "error": {
    "code": "EMAIL_REQUIRES_IMESSAGE",
    "message": "Email addresses need iMessage",
    "type": "validation",
    "http_status": 400,
    "retryable": false,
    "doc_url": "https://docs.blujay.io/errors/email-requires-imessage",
    "details": []
  },
  "trace_id": "trc_8f2a1c0e4b7d",
  "timestamp": "2026-10-14T17:30:48.000Z"
}

Still stuck?

Email support@blujay.io with the trace_id from the error response. See Errors for the response format.