Can't Send iMessages While on Any Kind of Call

Hey community,

Every time I'm on a call of any kind - phone, FaceTime, Zoom, Discord, etc. - Messages does not give me the option to send an iMessage. It only gives me the option to send an SMS text, even though WiFi is enabled and my phone is capable of sending iMessages.

I say "capable of sending iMessages" because if someone sends me an iMessage while I'm on a call, I can send one back (for a brief period of time) before it switches right back to SMS.

In settings, I turned off "Send as SMS," and now iMessage is the default option when I go to send text, even if I'm on a call. I can send iMessages normally this way with no problem. However, this should not be the case. Send as SMS should not have this much of an effect on my text messages. That setting is there for if iMessage fails to send in the first place. If you look at the description under the setting it says "Send as SMS when iMessage is unavailable." I like to keep this setting on because there are some times where me or my recipient has no internet connection and an SMS needs to be sent. With this on, the phone would automatically convert my iMessage to an SMS text if the iMessage failed to go through. However, it also seems to be the reason that my phone defaults to SMS when I'm on a call, but I'm not sure why that is the case. The phone should not be defaulting to SMS just because I'm on a call. iMessage is still available.

Lastly, I've done some research and found that this behavior (messages defaulting to SMS) can occur when there is no WiFi connection and you're trying to send an iMessage with data while on a call. That seems to be normal behavior as a result of whichever data plan currently in use on the iPhone. However, I'm not sure why this is happening to me, when my data is off and I'm on WiFi just trying to send an iMessage.

In summary, my phone is capable of sending iMessages while on a call, yet it defaults to send as SMS when "Send as SMS" is on in settings. If anyone knows why this is happening or how to fix it, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Ethan