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Ordinary SMS texting — which is what Android phones rely on — is not nearly as sophisticated as iMessage, which iPhone users rely on.
Even so, you should generally be able to exchange texts between iPhone and Android seamlessly — iPhones can receive SMS messages just as easily as Android.
If you have trouble getting texts from Android devices on your iPhone, here are nine ways to troubleshoot the problem.
If you’re having trouble getting SMS messages from Android users, remember that these can only arrive via your cellular network — not WiFi. Try turning the cellular radio off and on again to resolve any glitches.
1. Bring up the Control Center by swiping down from the top right corner if you’re on iPhone X or later; or swiping up from the bottom if you’re on iPhone 8 or earlier.
2. Tap Airplane mode – the button with an airplane on it – in the Control Center.
3. Wait a few seconds.
4. Tap Airplane mode again to re-enable the wireless networks.
Is it possible you’ve blocked the Android phone number? If you have, that would explain why you’re not getting those texts. Here’s how to check:
1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Phone.
3. Tap Blocked contacts.
4. Scroll through the list of blocked numbers (if there are any) and look for the Android user’s phone number.
5. If you see it, swipe the number to the left and tap Unblock.
While the ability to send and receive group messages among iPhones using iMessage is turned on by default, you might find that group texts using SMS isn’t enabled for your iPhone. Not a problem, though — you can enable it with a few taps.
1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Messages.
3. In the SMS/MMS section, turn on MMS Messaging by swiping the toggle button to the right.
Note: Also, make sure that you have enabled cellular data or that your iPhone is connected to Wi-Fi in order to receive MMS messages.
Likewise, if you have trouble receiving texts from Android users with embedded photos or videos, MMS might be turned off. You can enable MMS in the same place as group messaging:
1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Messages.
3. In the SMS/MMS section, turn on Group Messaging by swiping the toggle button to the right.
When the iPhone’s storage is full, it might not have the capacity to store anymore messages that you receive. If you have a ton of messages, it might be time to delete some of them to free up some space for new ones.
1. Open the Messages app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Edit in the top left corner of the screen.
3. Tap Select Messages.
4. Tap on any text message that you don’t need – it will have a checkmark on the left to indicate that you have selected it.
5. After you’re done selecting the messages you want to remove, tap Delete in the bottom right corner.
6. In the pop-up, confirm your decision by tapping Delete.
Quick tip: If you want to keep your old messages but still need to clear your iPhone’s storage, you can try other ways to free up space. For example, you can delete or offload apps you don’t need.
If you’ve tried everything up to this point in the article and you’re still not able to get Android texts, you might want to restart your phone, if you haven’t already. This will fix temporary glitches in software and memory on your iPhone. If you need a reminder, here is how to restart any iPhone.
While unlikely, it’s possible that an iOS update could fix your problem. See if there are any updates that need to be installed on your iPhone.
1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap General.
3. Tap Software Update and install any updates.
If you’ve tried everything else in this list and you still can’t get any texts from Android phones, it might be time to reset your iPhone’s network settings. Remember that this troubleshooting step will erase all your network settings, including any saved WiFi network passwords and paired Bluetooth devices.
Nonetheless, this might get your iPhone to start communicating with Android devices:
1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap General.
3. Tap Transfer or Reset iPhone.
4. Tap Reset.
5. In the pop-up menu, tap Reset Network Settings and confirm this is what you want to do.
If resetting your network settings didn’t work, it could be that your cellular provider is having a problem with their network coverage – maybe their SMS service is down. Contact them and find out if this is the case, and if it is, ask them when normal service will be restored.
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