Why you can’t get text messages from iPhones

Who is to blame for when a Samsung user with a new phone number can’t get text messages from iPhones?

Spoiler: It may be Apple’s fault; you can fix it very easily.

You’ve tried it all

• Rebooted your phone,
• Checked your APNs,
• Even called your cell provider’s support (where all three people you talk to are called “John”),
• Sent SMS and MMS messages to friends that receive them fine (both on Android or iPhone)
• Received text messages from other Android phones, but you just don’t receive any text messages from iPhones. 😡

iMessage

iMessage is a secure message protocol and app for sending messages over the Internet. So, what does iMessage have to do with your problem? Well, if you got a new phone number it may be a previously used number that was recycled. If your new recycled phone number is still associated with iMessage, then it seems that Apple will send text messages via iMessage instead of via SMS, meaning you will never receive them.

So how do you fix this?

So how do I remove my phone number from iMessage if I’ve never even used iMessage or owned an iPhone?

The solution is very easy:

1. go to Apple’s page dedicated to deregistering from iMessage
2. Enter your phone number and it will send you a code to de-register,
3. then text a friend with an iPhone to send you a test text message

Can Apple fix this?

Apple would need to have a way to detect that a phone number is no longer associated with an iPhone. It may be hard for them to establish systems to do this. If messages are continually not delivered - or at least not delivered to an iPhone with iMessage associated - they need to consider delivering via cell networks

Can Cell providers help?

Yes! Cell providers should establish systems to de-register phone numbers with iMessage as they are recycled. Or, establish a database for Apple to query to automatically de-register recycled numbers

Conclusion

I hope that you found this useful or at least interesting.