Why do my texts keep switching between RCS and SMS on iPhone?

I've seen other companies where, if there is an issue in the discussion groups, they comment. Apple 'Product Feedback' is useless -- may as well be a black hole. Individual support makes no sense if a solution is not disseminated to a wider group of people having the same problem: witness this thread. Even if there is no solution, post that here and say why. Then Apple wouldn't have to have as many employees servicing the people who contact them for 'support.' So, I find your answer, and Apple's custodianship or this forum, unsatisfactory. They certainly take the time to censor these forums on occasion; maybe while they're reading it, they could pass along a summary to the appropriate engineering group for a brief comment/reply.

Both my sister and myself are having issues sending texts, we both have iPhone. We’re using RCS

Thank you! This worked for me! I’ve been having this issue consistently since the last update.

My criticism stands: Apple is doing themselves and their users a disservice by not engaging with users here.

It’s a pain in the ***. Very annoying! More, it’s 2025, not 1985 when messaging began.

When I go to settings I then select general then transfer or reset iPhone, after that I don’t see reset network settings. I have reset or erase all content and settings. That scares me to not know which one to push.

monist wrote:

Notice how, on this site hosted by Apple, no help or suggestions are given by anyone from Apple.

This is not Apple Support. This is a user-to-user forum, something that was explained in the Terms of Use we all agreed to when we registered. Apple's participation here is largely limited to making sure we all behave.

If you want help from Apple, use the Support link at the bottom left of every page of this forum.

Bikergofast wrote:

That Apple chose to not make it encrypted when the option was there.

No, RCS encryption is NOT there. It is available between Android devices using Google’s proprietary encryption method. It is not yet a worldwide standard, and, with the EU being in the mix, it may never be.

monist wrote:

I've seen other companies where, if there is an issue in the discussion groups, they comment. Apple 'Product Feedback' is useless -- may as well be a black hole. Individual support makes no sense if a solution is not disseminated to a wider group of people having the same problem: witness this thread. Even if there is no solution, post that here and say why. Then Apple wouldn't have to have as many employees servicing the people who contact them for 'support.' So, I find your answer, and Apple's custodianship or this forum, unsatisfactory. They certainly take the time to censor these forums on occasion; maybe while they're reading it, they could pass along a summary to the appropriate engineering group for a brief comment/reply.

My answer is FACT. If you don’t like FACTs, I am sorry.

And Apple’s Feedback has brought about widely requested changes many times; in fact, many of the enhancements in iOS 18 started as user requests. With 2 billion customers feedback from one is not going to move them; if RCS is really an issue to thousands of users, and they tell Apple, it can make a difference.

The Apple moderators don’t routinely read the forums, there aren’t enough of them to police ASC, which is reportedly the world’s largest user support forum. They will generally only review a post that has been reported by a user, and then only remove it if the post violates the terms of use of ASC.

The reason Apple (and other companies) have user forums is legal liability; Apple employees can only publish information that has been vetted by Apple Legal, so someone identifiable as an employee can’t really answer a general question. The Terms of Use have a disclaimer that posts are the opinions of individuals, and do not speak for Apple.

And if anyone reports your recent post (it won’t be me) there’s a chance it will be removed because it isn’t a technical question or a technical answer, as explained in the ToU (did you read it, BTW), and this is a user-to-user Technical Support forum.

There is something odd about your device, then. Every one of my messages says either Text Message: SMS, Text message: RCS, or iMessage. As I posted in the screenshots earlier from my Messages app. I don’t currently have any MMS messages.

I had the same issue my girlfriend had a iPhone then switched to Android my iPhone 15 was sending RCS fine until it kept sending as SMS

If you have dual SIM have BOTH ON WHILE RCS IS ACTIVATING AFTER NETWORK RESET I have a T-Mobile SIM for backup and Verizon as Primary make sure your second SIM is the one using for Cellular

Before you reset network iCloud backs up any saved Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networks

Make sure your second line is used for data

THEN reset network

I did that first. Once I was done doing that. Is when I read to do the unread text. None of that work. I read that activation takes hours after the update. Or even days. So atp I’m just hoping it start back working. It’s annoying tho

You should try the Network Reset solution I posted a few weeks ago, it's working for many of us permanently.

Switching between RCS and SMS - Apple Community

You're fine, just follow the prompts

I’ve tried this and it works, Thank You