RCS not working on WiFi after updating to iOS 26 [iOS26]

This was the solution to getting it to work for me, it was NordVPN. RCS wouldn't work, and my wife's phone calls would always go straight to voicemail. None of the other suggestions fixed it for me, but once I disabled the VPN and gave it a minute, everything started working again.

Very strange that this setup, NordVPN and T-Mobile wi-fi calling/RCS, worked perfectly fine in ios 18, and is completely broken in ios 26, because the moment I upgraded is when everything stopped working.

FibonacciCascade wrote:

This was the solution to getting it to work for me, it was NordVPN. RCS wouldn't work, and my wife's phone calls would always go straight to voicemail. None of the other suggestions fixed it for me, but once I disabled the VPN and gave it a minute, everything started working again.

Very strange that this setup, NordVPN and T-Mobile wi-fi calling/RCS, worked perfectly fine in ios 18, and is completely broken in ios 26, because the moment I upgraded is when everything stopped working.

That's because NordVPN was properly updated to work with the new system software. As it's unnecessary, best to just get rid of it. Despite what their marketing said, it doesn't increase your security.

The pinned solution works. In my case, I went to do it but my Privite Wifi was already set to "Fixed" but was still giving me issues. Tried changing it to "Rotating" but the problem persisted. Tried "Off" but still no dice. After "Off" I went back to "Fixed" and it started to work. Guess the option was buggy. Now RCS works on Wifi, even with a VPN. Thanks!

Mine sends RCS if I'm on 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi but not on my 5Ghz network ever since I updated to iOS 26

I found this article for my cell provider. I switched to "fixed" as proposed, then re-registered my e911 address as the article says. It has been working for the past 24 hours, without either temporarily turning the wifi off or changing the private address setting to something else and back to fixed.

Have you tried resetting network settings? That is another solution which may help.

RCS is also not working for me since upgrading to iOS 26 on my iPhone 16 Pro Max. In addition, I am getting delayed texts (oftentimes needing to turn on / off wifi to get text messages again). I contacted AT&T live chat support and they said this is an Apple Bug that they need to fix.

yes, my bad. The requirements section in the article linked, states, that for t-mobile customers wifi calling must be enabled. While it does not say that, setting ons, is required to activate it.

[Edited by Moderator]

4 hours on the phone today with both Apple and Verizon wireless and each of them telling me it’s the other company’s issue. This all happened immediately after the iOS 26 update along with a bunch of other issues on my phone. I wish one of these companies would take accountability and do their job jobs. I currently cannot text android users that have RCS enabled because RCS will not work on my phone and it continues to say waiting activation.

Peter,

did you try turning it off then back on? Mine was on fixed too so I turned it off, went back one page just to be sure, then turned it back on and it seems to have fixed it.

Have you tried changing it to setting it to "Rotating" or "Off" and then changing back to "Fixed"?

If that does not work, try resetting network settings and doing the same.

IdrisSeabright wrote:

That's because NordVPN was properly updated to work with the new system software. As it's unnecessary, best to just get rid of it. Despite what their marketing said, it doesn't increase your security.

This should read "because NordVPN was not properly updated...."

Mine is already set to Fixed. Just to test it, I switched it to Rotating and it worked. Back to Fixed and it still works. Hopefully it lasts

I'm having the same issue. RCS only works when my wifi is off. Once it's on wifi, RCS doesn't work. I checked my "Private Wi-Fi Address" setting and it's already on "Fixed" so lithualien's top-ranking solution unfortunately doesn't work for me. Any other suggestions or do I have to wait until Apple comes up with an iOs update to fix this issue?

Can you elaborate on why you shared a link to that article? I do not see any helpful information there.

Also what do you mean "re-registered my e911 address" - the article does not mention e911 anywhere nor any other troubleshooting steps.