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IOS 18 and group messages with android users

I updated my iPhone 15 pro max to iOS 18 and ever since the addition of RCS texting my phone removes one of the users in a group message and then I don't have the ability to respond in that message. It removes the bar where you type your message. Then, it will randomly add that person back into the group chat until it decides to remove them again. It (or something) prevents the person that it removes from creating a new group message with me in it. I've tried rebooting the phone several times, deleting all of the groups with that person in it and creating new ones and get the same results. I have disabled and re-enabled the RCS messaging toggle and still have the same thing. The other two people in the group message are both android users, but it only removes one, and always the same one. I can see the group message on my MacBook and they were able to receive my message from there.

I can text this person individually and they receive my messages and can respond to me.

Anyone else having this issue and what did you find fixed it?

iPhone 15 Pro Max, iOS 18

Posted on Sep 22, 2024 10:25 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 25, 2024 4:50 AM

Also having this issue. If I turn RCS on to send a picture and forget to turn it off it will keep booting the group chat saying i kicked someone or they left. Both Android users. They added a cool feature we can't even use because its broken. Following this in hope for a solution.

51 replies

Sep 27, 2024 1:51 PM in response to SStormieSS

I was so excited to have the new "send later" feature for texting that I (against my better judgement) updated my phone to ios 18. And now my group chat with my business partners is *ucked. It randomly kicks out the Andriod users and we have to keep adding them back in. We are in the midst of opening a new location and really don't need this added headache. It also allows me to create a new group text with the same people without just defaulting to the original text string between us. Beyond frustrated. Please fix this ASAP!

Sep 25, 2024 5:05 PM in response to SStormieSS

I’ve been having the same issue with all my group chats with android users since I updated. I contacted Apple and was told I needed to contact AT&T since the carrier administers RCS texting. I contacted AT&T and they had no clue what I was even talking about and said if it started after the iOS update then it was an Apple problem. We have had to restart so many chats or delete duplicates and it is extremely frustrating. I really hope Apple figures this out quickly and fixes it

Sep 26, 2024 6:09 PM in response to flomopo

An update on my issue. I asked the T-Mobile tech to rep to reprovision my line. Even though my line on their side showed that I had MMS in group messaging capabilities. It was not allowing me to do so. Reprovisioning wiped the slate clean for me. I was warned that there was a possibly that I could lose my voicemails but all my voicemails are still there and I can now group text with someone that has an android in the group. Hopefully this helps. Good luck.

Sep 30, 2024 11:10 AM in response to SStormieSS

This issue has also been happening to me. I have a 14 pro, on iOS 18 and have Verizon as my carrier. It started happening as soon as I started using the new RCS feature :-( I was super excited to be able to do reactions with my android friends too! Is the person being kicked out of the group text specifically a Samsung user for y'all? I will say the person in my group text who is a pixel user has never been kicked out. Curious if it’s Samsung messaging specific.

Oct 18, 2024 12:04 PM in response to SStormieSS

After LOTS of phone calls with both my carrier AND Apple, I finally found a solution, though not what everyone might want to do. Apple had me erase my phone and do a fresh iOS 18.01 load, and NOT a restore from iCloud. Group texts worked fine. I could have just let every re-sync, but then would have had to manually re-load all my apps. Instead I opted to restore from a Backup and had the group message issue again. So I took I took the bold step of "Resetting all Settings". Sure this dropped all my WiFi passwords, My FaceID, and my Apple Wallet, but everything works now. It did NOT drop settings for 3rd party apps like mail and it did not erase my previous messages. Before I did this I made sure to iCloud and unsync my Password keychain so it didn't wipe the WiFi codes off my Mac. Oh, and of course I had to re-sign into secure things like banking apps. Hope this helps some of you.

IOS 18 and group messages with android users

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