New iPhone 12 Pro, text messages sending as SMS (green message) when receiver for sure has an iPhone/ iCloud account and not an android!

Hi,

Just got an iPhone 12 Pro today (Carrier: Verizon) with a new number

I switched over my stuff from my iPhone X > the iPhone 12 Pro - scanned the sphere on the iPhone X then my iCloud downloaded to the iPhone 12. Started to send messages to friends notifying them of my new number in the iPhone messages app. iPhone to iPhone iMessages were working perfectly for most recent family/ friend texts (within 2 months) then when messaging friends I had not spoken too in a couple months to notify them of the new number it immediately started to send as a SMS green message rather than an iMessage even though they for sure have iMessage/ iPhones too. The message would type and be ready to send as blue, try to send as blue and end up sending as green/ SMS almost like it recognized/ it knew the receiver has an iPhone but then when hitting send arrow it sends as an SMS. Spoke with Genius Bar and Verizon, Genius bar said iMessage can sometimes take up to 24 hours to work when you get a new phone, not sure what they mean by this. Verizon had me try all of the below trouble shooting steps:

• Made sure locations sharing was turned off on Iphone X
• Checked Wifi and Service, all were totally find - acknowledging that sometimes when your service sucks, it will send messages as green
• Reset Network settings
• Reset all Settings
• Log in and out of iCloud
• Setting> Mesages> Toggle your iMessage in settings
• Setting> Mesages> Toggle your Facetime in settings
• Setting> Mesages> Make sure you are signed into iCloud and your "Send & Receive" is checked correctly with your number and email

None of this has worked and it still seems to send as iMessage to the most recent friends I have had messages with (Within two months) before changing the phone over. Outside of that 2 months, the friends I have not spoken to but was notifying today of the new number for future use it treats our back and forth messages as SMS. All of these people for sure have iPhones and this is confirmed by them responding to my messages and it sends me an iMessage.

Noting that It seems like I am not having any issues receiving messages from anyone yet, this issue only have to do with how messages are sending out as green SMS when they are supposed to be iMessages given that the receiver has iMessage toggled on their end

I was so stoked for the new phone but this is super annoying to deal with, anyone else dealing with this? Pictures attached for reference