Android: Can't Send Text Message to One Person

A common problem for any Android user may be that they cannot send a text message to a single person. They can send and receive text messages from others, but for some reason, messages sent to this one person just aren’t getting through.

Here is a list of things to check to troubleshoot this issue.

Restart the Phone

A simple restart might do the trick. Hold down the “Power” button, then select “Restart“.

Check Blocking

Sometimes blocking happens accidentally. Check to be sure that you didn’t accidentally end up on a block list either with the message recipient’s carrier or on the block list of the recipient’s phone.

Check Contact Number

Open the “Contacts” app and ensure the phone number is correct. Also try the phone number with or without the “1” before the area code. I have seen it both work and not work in either configuration. Personally, I just fixed a problem texting where the “1” was missing.

Only MMS/SMS Setting

Note: This setting is not on all Android phones.

From the Android device, open “Messages“.
Open a message that was sent from the person who cannot receive your messages.
Select the located at the upper-right portion of the screen.
Select “Details“.
Check the “Only send MMS and SMS messages” box. This setting may also be a switch you can switch to “On“.

Disable iMessage

If the recipient or sender has used or is currently using an iPhone, it can cause problems for Android users since the iPhone utilizes the iMessage network. Have the iPhone user disable iMessage by going to “Settings” > “Messages” and setting “iMessage” to “Off“.

In some cases, the iPhone user will need to perform these steps:

Power off your smartphone.
Power the iPhone off and insert the SIM card you used with the device before.
Power on the iPhone.
Ensure you are connected to a Wi-Fi network.
Open “Settings” > “Messages“.
Slide “iMessage” to “Off“.
Leave the iPhone powered on for about an hour. iMessage should eventually deactivate.
Power on your device.

If you cannot perform this process, or you are still experiencing this problem, try the following steps to deactivate iMessage online:

Note: These steps will remove access to the appstore. You can always reactivate the device to gain access again if you wish.

Visit the Apple Support Profile website, and login with your Apple credentials.
Select your iPhone device on the site.
Select “Unregister“, then select “Unregister” again.

iMessage should now be deactivated. Check to see if you can receive text messages from an iPhone user.

If things still aren’t working for you, or you cannot perform the above steps, contact Apple Support. They can usually send a code to your new phone and deactivate iMessage on their end. It usually takes a period of 24 hours for the deactivation to complete.

This process has fixed this issue on multiple occasions. On one occasion, we contacted Apple Support via email. The Support department said that the person sending the text message may need to change how they are sending text messages. They will need to use an account with that shows “name”(Mobile Phone) instead of “name”(iPhone). These instructions didn’t make sense to us, but I figured I would include that information in case it helps anybody.

FAQ

I have an iPad registered to the same phone number I am using with my Android. What do I do?

You will have to deactivate iMessage on the iPad and any other Apple devices that are linked to the phone number you are using if you wish to receive text messages on the Android.