IOS 18 Update Makes it Difficult to Text

I’m having this exact issue too! I did as the support suggested and re-did the iMessage but nothing fixed it. Each text to a non iPhone device gets the red ! And I have to manually resend it. Super annoying.

Don’t know if this helps I disabled RCS in the iPhone settings and this seems to have fixed the issue

I have tried EVERYTHING suggested to resolve this issue and I’m still unable to text my husband (android). It has to do with the recent update! Prior to the IOS 18 update I had no issues texting him. Please help! This is very frustrating!!

I am still having this issue, has anyone been able to resolve this?

Same!!! My iMessage is not working at all ive resetted my network settings, restarted my phone, toggled the iMessage on an off, deleted old text threads, it won’t even let me add my email to use imesssage it just keep saying activation error.

GOTO APPLE SUPPORT AN CHOOSE YOUR DEVICE THEN SELECT IMESSAGE ACTIVATION ERROR ! Mines just got fixed they’ll email you when it’s working again 🔥🔥🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🤝🏾

My husband is having a similar issue he cannot group text. If he tries to send a photo to a non-iPhone user it tells him his MMS is not turned on. We have been to the AT&T store and they updated his messaging and it still does not work, RCS is on and MMS is on. He even deleted all of his text messages and it does not work. The new update did not fix anything.

Nothing is working. Even if I send sms to the number which is not in my contacts, the message is not sending. Please arrange to resolve this issue

My husbands phone won’t sent to certain android users and it all started after the update.

This doesn’t fix the issue, nor did the latest 18.1 update

Same with my significant other! It’s super annoying and frustrating. I even made his work phone numbers a separate contact and still am having the issue. Apple, GET IT TOGETHER

Dumpster fire is an understatement. I’ve been in it now for 3 weeks. And it’s a **** joke.

I get there’s bugs. But before you send something out to the public. Fix your stuff.

It’s not a carrier issue and shouldn’t be a SIM issue as the new iPhone 16 doesn’t even have a physical SIM. They need to put out a patch and stop pretending it is user error or a carrier problem.

I FOUND A FIX! I was having the same exact issue as OP - My boyfriend has a iPhone work phone and Android personal phone. Since both were under the same contact, whenever I'd text either phone, his responses would show up in the same thread. Then, after I updated to iOS 18, he couldn't receive texts I sent to his Android and was seeing them on his iPhone instead.

What I did to fix was creating a new contact for BOTH iPhone and Android numbers. When I texted to the new Android contact, he was able to receive it! I didn't need to delete the original contact or thread. Sadly his company cut off service to his iPhone today so I wasn't able to test this with his iPhone number. But I suggest trying to create new contacts and text them separately

I just spent the whole day jumping through hoops to try to fix this with Apple support to no avail.

They had me delete the contact, create new separate contacts, have my boyfriend re-enable iMessage on the work phone (had turned this off due to prior bugs) and disable again. They even had me delete all my text messages with my boyfriend of 8 years (which I was not willing to do), but they assured me I could restore from back up and the issue would be fixed. I back up my photos elsewhere, but it's a pain to restore, so I had to pay for additional iCloud storage just to do this. I deleted the messages, tried testing the issue, and the it still persisted even with no contacts or prior messages. It would still switch between his work and personal phone, and when starting a new thread specifically to one number, it would get confused on which prior thread to include and later change it in the Messages app.

They then thought restoring could maybe fix the issue as "It does additional checks when it is loading that data in actually. It is not a direct drop in and replacement import of data." I have corp on my phone and it took hours of manual testing, backup and restore, and manual restoration to get my phone back to normal. After restore.... exactly the same. Like nothing has changed. A whole day wasted chasing what must be an internal system bug, but they were convinced that somewhere between iMessage state, contacts, or message state there was an issue we could fix by deleting my data. I even sent them this thread and they assured me that it would be fixable by me. I have to say I'm impressed by the technical expertise of the support, but disappointed by the amount of time wasted to be back in the same place. I have a call tomorrow with senior support and will update if there are any resolutions.