texts on new mobile service NOT automatically going to message when using phone number

I just switched 2 lines from one carrier to another. Brought the phone number and the phones. Have proactively assigned the phone numbers to messages (after they seemed to have been removed from the list when phone numbers were pulled over), but any text to the phone number does not arrive via messages but as text (even though they qualify for messages). Of course if still works for email addresses, but that is still not convenient when everybody has your phone number stored in their contact lists. So, how do I get messages to recognize my old phone number, properly assigned to messages in the settings, on the old phone, with a new mobile carrier?