iPhone 12 Pro - “Message blocking active.”

One moment I was texting along fine through the messages app, next thing I knew I started getting the message blocking is active’ notification on any message I tried to send, except for a friend’s iPhone. The display specifically displayed “iPhone message” for that one, and it went through.

I updated to iOS 16.1 yesterday or the day before. I’ve off/in’s the phone a few times and tried a couple of old suggestions that popped up on Google, like turn off iMessaging, sign out & back in and restart, and random combinations of such actions - but the song remains the same… Should I delete & reinstall the message app? ?? Help, please.

Thanks,

Not Very Tech-Savvy