I’m receiving messages RCS but then my reply is SMS

@mebrandenberger did anything change when you updated to 18.2?

I tried these steps on my 13Pro max and it did not work for me.

I had the same issue with one contact I turned off RCS restarted iPhone and when I first went back to that contact, it showed SMS but after about two minutes, it changed and updated to RCS. I’m using a iPhone 15 Pro with iOS 18.2.

Same issue. Pixel 9 Pro XL (latest updates) trying to message iPhone 13 (latest updates). My messages from a Pixel go through as RCS, but responses from the iPhone are Text. Makes for a very annoying conversation. I have also noticed that at many points throughout the day my messages get stuck sending, and sometimes I receive a message indicating that they will go through when they "come back online". But at same time I'm sending other RCS messages to the same contact without issue. But unfortunately, typically receiving responses in text.

Most of the people I message via text/rcs are using Android, and RCS works fine for them. So I'm not sure if this is only impacting a single contact of mine or not.

Update since my last post here: I took someone's advice and reset all networks on my 15Pro and now it is holding RCS as it should for all conversations that require it. The downside was I lost all wifi passwords.

To reset your iPhone or iPad's network settings, you can do the following: 

1. Open Settings
2. Select General
3. Select Transfer or Reset iPhone or Reset
4. Select Reset Network Settings
5. Enter your passcode if prompted
6. Select Reset Network Settings again

I was having this same problem too, but restarting my phone seemed to temporarily fix it for me. I've also had to restart my network settings due to another, semi-related issue. I don't know yet if that is a long term solution, but it could be something else to try.

Educatorsu wrote:

Me, too, and I do not know how to fix it? Where is messages in the settings?

Settings>Apps>Messages

Settings also has a search box at the top of the main page that's really handy when you can't remember exactly where something is.

i did the exact same thing last week. And I would receive RCS but always send SMS for only the contact I changed the message on. I finally just deleted the contact and then added them back and it fixed the problem.

I tried everything. Only thing that worked for me is turn off rcs then reset network settings then turn on rcs. Wait 5 mins. Send message to an android then reply from android and then wait another 5 mins. Working properly after that. Con is that you lose your wifi saved passwords…

I had the same issue after sending one text that wasn’t going through as SMS, it was just one contact. Finally I asked the contact to restart their phone, then I shut RCS off, restarted my phone, and turned RCS back on. That finally seems to have fixed it, at least for now.

Same! I was trying to send a message to my best friend. She has an android and I have iPhone 14 Pro Max and it’s updated to 18.3.1. All my other android friends it says rcs message except for my best friend…and it goes back n forth to sms and rcs it’s pretty annoying.

No they don’t. But here is the stupidest thing about all of this. When I go to group conversations with my contact that iPhone won’t send RCS to, it will send RCS in the group chat but still not in the individual conversation!! I’m totally dumbfounded by all of this. I deleted my contact again and re-added her. Back to RCS for now until my iPhone decides it can’t sent and just freezes in SMS mode. Starting to feel like Apple did this on purpose so they can drop RCS. If the banners weren’t so obnoxious I’d probably not care so much and move on with my life. Haha.

I’m having the same issue after the update—none of my husband’s text messages are coming to my iPhone 16 pro max anymore (but they’re showing up on iMessage in my iPad and Mac Mini). Going to the Verizon store to see if they can help (I also had issues on vacation with accessing streaming and social media). Will update in a day or two!

Possible fix!

This happens to me too, only with my husband who has an android on the same network. I decided to try the following, and it instantly fixed it although we’ll see if it stays fixed. Turning RCS/phone/network off and back on was no longer doing anything for me.

Delete the person’s number from their contact card (Contacts-> Select contact name-> Edit-> Delete “Phone”-> Done). Then go back to your text conversation and reconnect it (Select phone number/contact-> Info-> Add to Existing Contact-> Select contact name-> Update).

Simply deleting the number from their contact card will not delete your message history or anything else. It only severs the link. But it seems to trigger something!

It’s possible that blocking/unblocking a contact may also work the same way, but I did not test it. If the issue reoccurs, I will.

I was able to fix this by adding the country code to a contact's phone number. Once I changed the phone number from (0*****00 to 1 (00*****00 the messages going forward then showed as all being RCS with the contact.

[Edited by Moderator]