Hello jermarcole,
Thanks for choosing the Apple Support Communities. It looks like you are getting an error when trying to activate iMessage and have tried almost everything found in: If you can’t turn on or sign in to iMessage or FaceTime - Apple Support
We suggest following the remainder of the resource to help you resolve the issue. Please follow the steps below.
"Still not activated after a day?
It might take up to 24 hours to activate iMessage and FaceTime. If the issue continues after 24 hours, follow these steps:
- Make sure that your device has the latest version of iOS or iPadOS.
- If you're using an iPhone, contact your carrier to make sure that you can send and receive SMS messages.
- Make sure you can send and receive SMS. If a prompt appears stating "Your carrier may charge for SMS messages used to activate FaceTime and iMessage", tap "OK" to allow possible SMS charges.
- Contact Apple Support.

Get more help
You can also use your email address with iMessage and FaceTime. Sign in to your Apple ID account page and review all the email addresses you have on file, including the one that you're trying to verify. If the email address is incorrect, you can update it. Then click Resend next to the email address that you want to verify."
We hope this helps.
Cheers!