Not able to send texts to non iPhone users

[Rosemary20]

I’m new to PM and I’ve been trying to send texts to a couple of friends in my contacts that do not have iPhones. When I look at their contact information, the texting bubble was there before joining and now has disappeared. Anyone know how to correct this?

[Rosemary20]

• Thank you, my eSIM from the previous company was still showing in my settings. Once I deleted that, everything worked. 

[Anerkons]

If I were you I would contact Customer Service. 

[Rosemary20]

Thank you, I do have the latest update. I have turned the RCS off and still texts not going through. I have eSim not a physical SIM card. Do you think that has anything to do with it?

[Anerkons]

RCS on iPhone works if you have iOS 18 or higher. I have IOS 26 and have RCS turned off and have no problems sending or receiving texts. RCS is an improvement to standard SMS MMS that gives higher resolution messaging better group chats etc. but is not necessary . 

[umnikke8]

Yes, that could cause issues sending text messages. You can disable RCS messaging for the time being as its optional and see if that gets things working. Then try again later to enable RCS, it may take some time after moving or setting up new service before RCS enables, or may take some resets or reboots.

[Rosemary20]

Thank you, in my RCS Messaging, it says Waiting for Activation. Do you think this is why I’m not able to?

[umnikke8]

If you just ported your phone number over, that process may not have completed successfully, resulting in the inability to send text messages. You might also have problems receiving messages as well as calling in or out. Similar may happen if you got a new number as well.

You might need to reboot the phone or reset the network settings before the phone number is fully loaded. Also might have to disable services or remove SIM cards from your previous provider.

If there is an issue with the number porting, you'll have to contact customer support to sort it out.