Cannot Send Text Messages

Try turning your phone off and waiting for 30 seconds before turning it back on. Sometimes this can help.

For steps on how to restart an iPhone or Android phone, visit Restart your wireless phone.

Once your phone is back on, try making a phone call and sending out a text. If phone calls are not working, and you don’t have bars of signal on your phone, learn how to restore service on your phone.

If the message is over 160 characters long, it will be split into two messages and become a Multimedia Message (MMS).

This feature does not use data, but still requires that cell data is switched on – even if you do not have a data plan.

You can also try to shorten your message to under 160 characters.

Turn off Wi-Fi on your phone to make sure the issue is not related to Wi-Fi calling.

• Select Settings.
• Select Wi-Fi.
• Toggle off the switch beside Wi-Fi so the green is no longer showing.

Note: Every Android is slightly different, but all should follow this basic formula.

• On the main screen, use your finger to pull down from the top of the screen which should show notifications as well as the Quick Settings bar.
• You should see an icon for Wi-Fi highlighted. Tap on the icon to turn off Wi-Fi.
• If you do not have Wi-Fi in the Quick Settings, then you will need to select Settings from your app list.
• Select Connections (sometimes called Network and Internet).
• Toggle Wi-Fi off.

If the problem persists with Wi-Fi turned off, you can turn it back on and continue to the next step.

If it is just one number that you are not able to send a text to, the person you are texting may not be able to receive your messages.

If your text message shows as sent, or even as delivered with no error, you can try to contact them another way and have them check if they are able to receive text messages from your number and check their phone if they accidently blocked your number.

Check to make sure your Short Message Service Center (SMSC) number is correct on your phone (Android only).

Note: Every Android is slightly different, but all should follow this basic formula.

• Select the Messages App.
• Select the Menu Button (3 dots at top right).
• Select Settings.
• Select More Settings.
• Select Text Messages.
• Scroll down to view the Message Center Number. It should be +17057969300. If it is not, please change it and test if you can send out a text.

If it is just one number that you are not able to send a text to, delete the contact from your phone, and any of their text messages, and try again.

If the problem you are having is with Apple iMessage (typically in blue message bubbles) or Android RCS Messaging (text messages that use data, typically in dark blue message bubbles), please make sure that your data works on your phone by trying to visit a website.

If your data is working, please follow these steps:

• Select Settings.
• Select Messages.
• Toggle iMessage off and check whether text messaging works.
• Toggle iMessage back on.
• If iMessage is still not working but text messaging is working, please contact Apple for assistance.

Note: every Android is slightly different, but all should follow this basic formula.

• Select the Messages App.
• Select Settings.
• Select the Menu Button (3 dots at top right).
• Select Settings.
• Select Chat Features or Enhanced Features.
• Toggle Chat Features off and check whether text messaging works.
• Toggle Chat Features back on.
• If RCS Messaging is still not working but text messaging is working, please continue to the next step.

Note: if you just switched from an iPhone to an Android phone, or Android to iPhone, you may still be registered under the iMessage or RCS Messaging for that phone. Learn how to disable iMessage or disable the RCS Messaging for your number.

If the steps above have not fixed your issue, please visit the Wireless Troubleshooting page for additional support, where you will be able to check for outages and get assistance from our Virtual Assistant Anna.

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