If you’ve switched from iPhone to Android, you may have come across a frustrating error: Some text messages aren’t delivered to you and neither you nor the person sending the text knows it. For a long time, Apple didn’t acknowledge this bug, so there wasn’t much to do to fix it, but that changed after Apple released a free tool to remove your phone number from iMessage that makes your texts move again.
The Cause of Android iMessage Error
When two iPhone users text each other, by default their messages are sent via iMessage, Apple’s free iPhone-to-Phone messaging tool (you can tell a text was sent using iMessage because the bubble words in the Messages app is blue). When one person in a conversation has an iPhone and the other has another type of phone – Android, for example – traditional text messaging (represented by the green word balloon) is used.
No problems so far. The problem arises when someone who used to have an iPhone and thus used iMessage, switches to Android or another platform. In that case, Apple’s system sometimes doesn’t recognize that a change has been made and will still try to deliver the text via iMessage.
Because the iMessage network is completely separate from the standard text messaging network, the message is terminated and never delivered to its intended recipient. To make matters worse, the sender also doesn’t know that the message wasn’t delivered.
Fix Android iMessage Error With Free Apple Tool
Apple has released a free tool that allows former iPhone users to unregister their iMessage phone numbers, preventing texts sent to them from falling prey to the bug. If you used to be an iPhone user, and have switched to Android and are not getting some texts, do the following:
- Go to the Apple Deregister iMessage web page.
- Scroll down to the section titled Don’t Have Your iPhone Anymore?
- Enter your phone number (this assumes you’ve moved your phone number from your iPhone to your new Android phone) and click Send Code.
- You will receive a text message on your new phone with a 6-digit confirmation code.
- Enter that code on the website and click Submit . This removes your iMessage number and resolves the issue.
Fix iMessage error before switching to Android
If you’re planning to switch to Android, but haven’t yet, there’s an easier way to prevent the error from happening: delete your iMessage number now. This means that you will no longer be able to get free iMessages, but all those messages will still be delivered as text messages, so you won’t miss a thing. To do this:
- Tap the Settings app .
- 2. Touch Messages.
- Move the iMessage slider to Off/white.
Fix Android iMessage bug if you still have your iPhone
If you have already switched to Android, but have not yet recycled or sold your used iPhone, there is another way to solve the problem. Then:
- Take the SIM card from your new Android phone and insert it into your iPhone. This temporarily moves your phone number back to the iPhone.
- Tap the Settings app .
- 2. Touch Messages.
- Move the iMessage slider to Off/white .
- Put the SIM card back into your new phone.
