Android Not Receiving Texts from iPhone? How to Fix It

You switched from an iPhone to an Android — calls work, internet works, but texts from iPhone-owning friends simply never arrive. Nobody is blocking you. In the vast majority of cases, Apple’s servers still believe your phone number is an iMessage number, so messages from iPhones are routed to Apple’s service instead of being sent to your new Android phone as ordinary SMS. The fix is to tell Apple you’ve left, and it takes about five minutes.

Quick answer: deregister your number from iMessage — if you still have the old iPhone, turn off iMessage (and FaceTime) in its Settings; if you don’t, use Apple’s official deregistration page and confirm with the code it texts you. If some texts still go missing afterward, reset RCS chats in Google Messages and check the sender-side settings below. Still stuck? That’s a carrier provisioning issue, and a call fixes it.

First, find your pattern — it points to the cause

What you’re seeing	Likely cause	Go to
No texts from any iPhone (Androids come through fine)	Your number is still registered with iMessage	Fix 1
Regular SMS arrives, but chat features don’t (no read receipts, messages stuck “sending” to some contacts)	RCS glitch in Google Messages	Fix 3
Only one person’s texts vanish	Their iPhone has a stale thread or an old email address for you	Fix 4
No texts from anyone at all	SIM, signal, or number-porting problem — not iMessage	Fix 2

Fix 1: Deregister your number from iMessage

This solves the classic case and is the fix Apple itself documents for switching to a non-Apple phone. There are two routes:

If you still have the iPhone

Put your SIM back into the iPhone for five minutes. Then, per Apple’s official guide: open Settings → Apps → Messages and turn iMessage off; go back and do the same for FaceTime. Make sure the iPhone is connected to the cellular network while you do it, then move the SIM back to your Android.

If the iPhone is gone (sold, traded, wiped)

Use Apple’s self-service deregistration page from any browser: enter your phone number, and Apple texts you a confirmation code to enter on the page. Your number then leaves Apple’s iMessage directory. Apple notes it can take a few hours for every Apple device to catch up, so give it that long before declaring the fix failed.

Fix 2: Rule out the Android-side basics

Before blaming Apple, confirm the receiving end works at all:

• Test with a non-iPhone. Ask an Android friend to text you. If nothing arrives from anyone, the problem is local: check signal, make sure the SIM is active, and confirm a recent number port fully completed (carrier ports can take hours and SMS is the last thing to come alive).
• Check the default SMS app. Your phone needs exactly one default messaging app (Google Messages or Samsung Messages), set under Settings → Apps → Default apps. A third-party SMS app half-installed can swallow incoming texts.
• Check blocked numbers and spam protection. In Google Messages: profile icon → Spam & blocked. An over-eager spam filter or an old block silently deletes conversations.

Fix 3: Reset RCS chats in Google Messages

Modern texting between Androids — and now between Androids and iPhones running recent iOS — uses RCS, Google’s chat protocol. When RCS gets stuck, messages to some contacts sit on “sending” or never land even though plain SMS works. The documented remedy is a reset: in Google Messages, tap your profile icon → Message settings → RCS chats, turn RCS off, restart the phone, then turn it back on and let it re-register. Google’s own RCS troubleshooting page covers the status states (“setting up…”, “disconnected”) and what they mean. Note that if a chat bubble shows as a normal SMS/text badge, RCS isn’t involved — that message path is plain SMS and won’t be fixed by this step.

Fix 4: When only one iPhone friend’s texts vanish

If texts arrive from every iPhone except one person’s, the problem lives on their phone, in cached routing:

• Have them delete your entire conversation thread and start a fresh message to your number — iPhones can keep hammering a dead iMessage thread long after deregistration.
• Ask them to open your contact card and remove any old email address of yours (an Apple ID email) as a destination — their phone may be “texting” that address instead of your number.
• On their iPhone, confirm Settings → Apps → Messages → Send as SMS is enabled, so their phone falls back to a real text when iMessage isn’t available.

Fix 5: Escalate to the carrier

If you’ve deregistered, waited a few hours, and texts from iPhones are still disappearing, the remaining suspect is the carrier’s routing: their systems may still hand messages bound for your number to Apple’s network. Call your carrier, say the words “my number is still routed to iMessage after switching to Android,” and ask them to reprovision SMS on the line. This is a known, scripted fix on most networks — and if the carrier points fingers, Apple Support can force-deactivate a number from their side as well.

Prevent it next time: switch cleanly

If you ever move off an iPhone again, spend two minutes before the swap: turn off iMessage and FaceTime in Settings while the SIM is still in the iPhone, keep the line active through the port, and back up what matters — photos, notes, and free space are worth sorting before the phone leaves your hands; our iPhone storage guide covers the cleanup. Once the Android is set up, the usual new-phone gremlins live elsewhere — if its Wi-Fi starts misbehaving, our Android Wi-Fi fix guide picks up that thread, and the slow-and-freezing fix guide covers the rest of the first-week quirks.

FAQ

Why do texts from iPhones not come through on my Android?

Because Apple’s servers still list your number as an iMessage user, texts from iPhones are sent over Apple’s data network instead of carrier SMS. Deregistering your number from iMessage (Fix 1) redirects them to your Android.

How long does iMessage deregistration take?

The online tool itself takes a minute, but Apple says it can be a few hours before all Apple devices recognize your number has left iMessage. Test again after waiting that long before moving to the carrier escalation.

I still have the old iPhone — what’s the fastest fix?

Put the SIM back in it, turn off iMessage and FaceTime in Settings, then move the SIM back. That updates Apple’s records directly and usually works immediately.

Does RCS have anything to do with missing texts from iPhones?

Only for chat-style features between newer iPhones and Androids. The classic “no texts at all from iPhone users” case is iMessage registration, not RCS — but if regular SMS arrives and only chat features misbehave, reset RCS in Google Messages.

Can the person sending texts fix it from their end?

Only when it’s just one sender: they should delete the old conversation thread, remove any old Apple ID email from your contact card, and make sure Send as SMS is enabled on their iPhone.

The bottom line

Missing texts after an iPhone-to-Android switch are almost never the Android’s fault — they’re Apple’s routing still pointing at your old setup. Deregister from iMessage, wait a few hours, reset RCS if chat features act up, and lean on the carrier only if the ghosts survive all that. Then your green-bubble friends can finally reach you.