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A friend of mine just switched from iPhone to Android. He can text me without any problem, but I can't text him at all. I have tried everything I can think of but no message will ever reach him. They are of course transmitting as SMS since he is no longer on iMessage.

The strange part is, my wife's iPhone (4s running iOS 6) can text him perfectly fine, no problem at all, so whatever is happening seems to be on my end.

Any suggestions on how I can sort this?

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  • Settings > Messages > Send as SMS --- Is this enabled?
    – TMHahn
    Sep 13, 2016 at 21:36
  • Yes it is. All settings are as they should be and haven't changed since before he got his Android phone and we texted regularly.
    – JVC
    Sep 13, 2016 at 22:22
  • Try disabling MMS and see if that helps. But in the end assuming they are sending as SMS, your iPhone isn't the problem and it's up to the carrier to make sure their network behaves as expected (which rarely, if ever does, thanks to endless corner-cutting).
    – André Borie
    Sep 14, 2016 at 2:06
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    @JonathanvanClute Is it possible you are sending messages to his email address (which is still registered with iMessage), and your wife is sending messages to his phone number (which has been deregistered from iMessage)? What happens if you manually type his phone number into the To field in Messages?
    – MJeffryes
    Sep 14, 2016 at 10:36
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    They are marked as delivered and are green because they go as SMS. My wife's texts to him are also green, and they get to him without any issue.
    – JVC
    Sep 15, 2016 at 18:50

3 Answers 3

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This occurs because Apple still believes the phone number is using iPhone, but it can vary from device to device whether this impacts sending and receiving messages to that number (and how long it takes for that to resolve).

The quickest way to resolve it is for your friend to read the Apple support article Deregister iMessage. The deregister process can be done from the old iPhone (if it's still available) or online. It still may take a few hours for all Apple devices to recognize the number no longer uses iMessage, but it could take much longer without completing the deregister process.

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    I had seen this information but did not think it applied in my case, since my wife's phone can text him fine but mine can't. Turns out my friend had already done that procedure so that he could text to/from his own iPad. So this is for sure not the problem in this case.
    – JVC
    Sep 13, 2016 at 22:20
  • Just to be clear since this question has received quite a few views, and this answer keeps getting upvoted... this was not the solution in my case. I am still unable to text him from my phone to his, nearly a month after the question was asked. I've made no progress towards a solution at all.
    – JVC
    Oct 5, 2016 at 1:06
  • I'm sorry it didn't fix your issue. Stack Exchange is intended for the OP (you) to select the answer that worked, but other answers are voted up or down based on their usefulness. The process I described is how it should work. Sometimes glitches happen.
    – tubedogg
    Oct 5, 2016 at 1:37
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You mentioned in a comment that the friend uses an iPad. Therefore if you send him an iMessage, it’s delivered to his iPad and not the Android phone. Settings > Messages > Send as SMS only applies when the iMessage cannot be delivered but it is not the case when it’s successfully delivered to the iPad.

I can imagine two solutions:

  1. Your friend must turn off his iPad (airplane mode is enough) when he cannot check it.
  2. He must deregister iMessage for his phone number, keeping only e-mail address as the iMessage ID. Then start a new conversation with him on your iPhone. Type his name to the To: field and select the item with the green phone number. This selection works for my friend having iPad and a “dumb” phone. However, I haven’t tested the procedure of deregistering iMessage.
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  • He has already previously done the deregistration process but I will ask if he gets the texts on his iPad. I'm fairly sure he does not since he was never knew I was texting him al all.
    – JVC
    Sep 14, 2016 at 14:19
  • He does not get the messages from me on his iPad.
    – JVC
    Sep 15, 2016 at 15:15
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If your friend is a Verizon customer, and uses Verizon's Messages+ app, it might be that your friend has unintentionally (or intentionally) muted your conversation on his/her new Android device.

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  • He is not on Verizon, he is on Sprint.
    – JVC
    Sep 15, 2016 at 18:49
  • I know this is an old question, but this was happening with my mother-in-law. In her case, she discovered (on my prodding) that she had unintentionally/unknowingly blocked me. I didn't know she wasn't getting my messages until she commented on others responding to my messages that she wasn't seeing my responses that others were referring to and didn't understand why.
    – hepcat72
    Mar 29 at 17:56

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