At&T Samsung Galaxy S4 Group Messaging Issue - Looking for a Solution

[joe12345678910]

a lot of people don't seem to understand this issue. i'll try to explain it a bit better.

i had an iphone 4s with imessage turned on. whenever i would text another apple device that had imessage my text would appear in a blue cloud. when i would text somebody who did not have imessage enabled, or if they were using android or whatever, my message would appear in a green cloud.

when i switched to the galaxy s4, initially i could not receive any texts from imessage users. the messages were still going to my inactive 4S. I had to switch off imessage and remove my iphone information from apples website and only then was I able to receive texts on my galaxy s4. the stock messaging app on the s4 allows for group messages, so I am able to message multiple friends with iphones in a single thread.

the problem i have been running into is that not every message in those group threads get through to my s4. i probably receive about 40% of the messages being sent. the group message is comprised of like 7 imessage users and I am the only person with an android. the issue is that for some reason when my friends send a text in the group thread (only occurs in group messages, never happens in 1 on 1 threads) their iphone randomly either chooses to send it as an unreadable imessage (blue cloud) or a regular text message (green cloud), which I am able to read. i have no idea which device is at fault, or what process the iphone uses to either send a message as imessage or regular text but it is extremely annoying. the only workaround seems to be having to ask everybody to disable their imessage. hopefully there will be a future update coming to either device that will address this issue.

 

[texasotts]

I didn't deactivate my iPhone imessage or anything. The issue is I think is that if you still have your iPhone you probably have your wifi on. As long as wifi is on you can still receive I messages on your apple device. Turn your wifi off and see if that helps. I know it's a pain but I can receive all group messages from iPhone users in a group message. I am the only one with android out of my friends. I wish apple had never made imessage.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Android Central Forums

 

[fleethefactory]

Hey obrobb, I had this issue too and was able to resolve it by taking the sim card out of my new S4, plugging it back into my iPhone, powering it on, turning off iMessage, and then powering the iPhone off. When I plugged it back into my S4, it seemed to have done the trick. I also made sure to remove the phone from my Apple Support profile (https://supportprofile.apple.com/). I don't know if you have to do that, but I did. Good luck!

 

[obrobb]

Fleet,
Turning off imessage does seem to be the key. I had sold my iphone and my wife was using the same Apple id that I was. So instead I unregistered my old iPhone and changed the password on the Apple id and then my messaging problem was fixed. I am not sure exactly which one did the trick but I am glad to be past that group messaging issue.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Android Central Forums

 

[mch685]

I had the same problem, but was not sharing an acct with another device. My other problem was that I had already sold my iPhone before finding out that iMessage was the culprit. Luckily, my wife still has an iPhone.

I spent 2 hours Saturday morning making a backup of her phone and resetting it to original. I then put my S4 SIM card in it and loaded the latest backup from my old iPhone, went in and turned iMessage off. Then had to restore it and load her backup in to get her back going.

Different approach that OP, same end result. Between the two of us, hopefully it will help others out.

 

[Ive Santiago]

Hi:

I am having the exact same issue. I have unregistered my iPhone from the Apple I'd and also changed the password. How long did it take for it to work for you? Mine is still not working

 

[mg8r1016]

Same issue here...where do you go to unregister old iPhone and change password, just in iTunes? ***I figured out how to unregister old iphone and I changed my itunes pw*** I'm using go SMS, have checked all my settings. I can send the group msg out just can't get responses unless people writing me has iMessage turned off.

 

[texasotts]

Ddi you check the setting in go sms that allows group messages? Yiu need to make sure that box is selected. Also if you still have your iPhone make sure your wifi is off. It can pull messages from imessage

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Android Central Forums

 

[mg8r1016]

Yes my old iPhone has been wiped and is turned off. I also unregistered and changed my iTunes pw. This is frustrating and my wife, an iPhone 5 user, is laughing that I switched. Ugh!

Should I load my sim back into my wiped iPhone and rest it back up and then disable imessage?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Android Central Forums

 

[Ive Santiago]

I changed the password, unregistered the phone from my apple id. all the group messaging setting are turned on and have turned of imessage from my computer and my ipad. Still unable to receive any group messages. Help?

 

[texasotts]

I'm not sure what the issue is. It's so odd. I didn't unregister my apple Id or anything. Try installing go sms and see if that changes it although stock does group messaging. Just something to try. Maybe send your screenshot settings to make sure everything is checked correctly

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Android Central Forums

 

[pwoodrow]

a lot of people don't seem to understand this issue. i'll try to explain it a bit better.

i had an iphone 4s with imessage turned on. whenever i would text another apple device that had imessage my text would appear in a blue cloud. when i would text somebody who did not have imessage enabled, or if they were using android or whatever, my message would appear in a green cloud.

when i switched to the galaxy s4, initially i could not receive any texts from imessage users. the messages were still going to my inactive 4S. I had to switch off imessage and remove my iphone information from apples website and only then was I able to receive texts on my galaxy s4. the stock messaging app on the s4 allows for group messages, so I am able to message multiple friends with iphones in a single thread.

the problem i have been running into is that not every message in those group threads get through to my s4. i probably receive about 40% of the messages being sent. the group message is comprised of like 7 imessage users and I am the only person with an android. the issue is that for some reason when my friends send a text in the group thread (only occurs in group messages, never happens in 1 on 1 threads) their iphone randomly either chooses to send it as an unreadable imessage (blue cloud) or a regular text message (green cloud), which I am able to read. i have no idea which device is at fault, or what process the iphone uses to either send a message as imessage or regular text but it is extremely annoying. the only workaround seems to be having to ask everybody to disable their imessage. hopefully there will be a future update coming to either device that will address this issue.

I am having this same issue. But I have never owned an iPhone in my life. A lot of the messages that I receive in a group thread come to me blank and from "Unknown Sender". My wife has an iphone and so does my brother. So we did a test. I started a group thread with just them, using my S4. I told my wife to respond with iMessage turned on... when she did that, I got a blank message from "Unknown Sender." I then told her to turn iMessage off and respond to the thread, and I got the response no problem.

Sometimes I do get my wife's response in a group thread whenever she has iMessage on. This is confusing!

 

[sportzking8131]

Exact same issue for me, its been like 2 weeks and i still dont know what to do.

 

[mg8r1016]

Finally it is working!! After unregistering my old iPhone, changing my iTunes password, removing my phone number from my iTunes account it is finally working! Hope it continues to work! Thanks for all the support in helping a newbie!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Android Central Forums

 

[mch685]

Unregistreing my phone and changing my iCould password did nothing. It literally took me loading my last backup into an iPhone, and physically switching iMessage off. I sent a text to verify that it was off from the iPhone before restoring it back to original.

**Just restoring to original does not turn iMessage off!**

This issue left me infuriated many times. Nobody at AT&T could figure it out, but thankfully Google and androidcentral got me straightened out.

 

[itsbryanthelion]

Yeaaaa, this works. My friends and I were trying to group text but any iMessages weren't being retrieved from my phone. Signed off all my iMessage accounts on Apple devices and the messages started coming in.

 

[fodd]

I had a similar issue I was using my old iPhone as a iPod for my kids and all my texts from other iPhone users were going to my iPhone instead of my Galaxy S4. On the iphone I went into settings and scrolled down to messages and turned off imessage and that seems to have worked, now my texts are going to my S4.

 

[MadameVu]

This worked on my phone as well. Thanks so much for everyone on the forum! I was about to return this phone for an iphone 5 because I primarily group message but I think this did the trick.

 

[levigunz]

Im new to android and just traded in my iphone 5 for an s4 and still can't get the group messaging to work! Can someone help me? No I can't go turn off iMessage because I already traded my old iphone in! Any help is appreciated!

 

[Amber Lee1]

I've done everything I could think of from this board as well (turned off imessage, changed itunes password, etc.) but I also noticed group messages don't send over wifi, so I turned that off too. Then I remembered I have an ipad at home so hopefully when I turn my imessage off on that device this will start working. If this doesn't work I will seriously regret the switch. Also, I'm with Verizon and they just got these phones in last week so expect to see a lot of new verizon people on here soon.