iPhone users suddenly not receiving text messages in Group Texts sent from my Samsung

[ramsrule45]

At the end of January (26th was the last text received in one of my group chats) I noticed that I was not getting responses from my texts in group chats but I receive all the chats as normal.

I was receiving all the texts from the group but they were not receiving my texts or reactions to their texts.

Most of the people I have in group chats are iPhone users and I have no idea what updates they would all be using.

I can send and receive individual texts still it seems with everyone but not group texts.

When my group responses stopped going through my text were always SMS/MMS.

I had an S20 Ultra and while this was all happening, I received a new Samsung S25 Ultra and it is behaving the same way.

So I turned on RCS to see if that helped or not. I also turned on the toggle that used MMS when RCS wasn't available for the chat.

I have again turned off RCS completely to see if that helps.

Since that I have tried turning it on and off and experimenting but to no luck so far.

I have also tried:
1) being deleted and readded to from group chat that couldn't receive my texts
2) clearing cache and force stopping Google Messages
3) clearing cache, uninstalling and reinstalling Google messages
4) switching to Samsung messages as default messaging app and trying to text (and still my texts didn't go through to the group chats that they weren't going to before)
5) oh ya of course shutting off my phone and restarting it.

Nothing has worked. Does anyone have any new suggestions, advice, or knowledge about this issue?

 

[trucksmoveamerica#AC]

You can have your iphone users turn their RCS off then back on. That worked for me last time.

This message divide between iphone and Android users needs to end. Most the world use Whatsapp for this reason, but here in the United States iphone users like their blue bubbles.

 

[VidJunky]

Just based on the information you provided I would say the issue sounds like it's on their end and not yours, after saying that you tried two different apps with the same result.

Just a couple of questions.

How did you figure out that your messages were not going through? Was it just that no replied to your comments, you got a delivery error message, the message shows sending or pending in the thread, how did you know?

Were you able to try trucksmoveamerica#AC's advice? If you don't know everyone in the group well enough to ask them all to do this perhaps if you just had one or two of the group members try it and see if it helps.

Gemini also offered this advice.


If your Android messages aren't reaching an iPhone group chat, the most likely reason is that the group chat is trying to use Apple's iMessage feature, which doesn't seamlessly integrate with Android devices; to fix this, you can usually try turning off iMessage on the iPhone, ensuring MMS messaging is enabled, and restarting the phone, which should force the group chat to send messages as standard SMS instead of iMessage. [1, 2, 3]
Key points to check: [1, 4, 5]

• iMessage settings: Go to your iPhone's Settings > Messages and ensure "Send as SMS" is enabled. [1, 4, 5]
• MMS messaging: Verify that MMS messaging is turned on in your iPhone settings. [1, 2, 4]
• Restart your phone: Sometimes a simple restart can resolve connectivity issues. [1, 2, 6]
• Create a new group chat: If the issue persists, try creating a new group chat with the Android user to see if that resolves the problem. [1, 7]

Why does this happen? [1, 3, 8]

• Different messaging protocols: Apple's iMessage uses a different messaging protocol than Android's standard SMS, which can cause compatibility issues when trying to send group messages between the two platforms. [1, 3, 8]

 

[SyCoREAPER]

There is a more forceful method to reset RCS on your end though I agree that it seems like it's on their end. Google had issues with RCS when it first launched and no doubt Apple botched their bare minimum RCS protocol (possibly even intentionally since they didn't want it in the first place).

Instead of doing it on your phone, do it server side:

How to turn off RCS chats

messages.google.com

Wait maybe 15-30 mins. Force stop messages and clear cache. Open it up. RCS will likely not show up or say it's unavailable. Make sure you're on Wifi. Force Stop again and clear cache again. RCS should slowly try and reconnect. If it gets stuck clear data.

The above may be outdated, I haven't done it in a while and not with the RCS overhaul but it fixed issues for me back in the day.