iPhone 8: Merged iMessage/SMS group chat issue

iphoneuser121a wrote:

I have an iPhone 8 with iOS 16.7.15.

I was in a group chat with all iPhone users using iMessage, and yesterday one of my friends downgraded to a "dumb" phone, which meant that he could send but not receive messages in that group chat.

To solve this, one of our other friends created a second group chat with the same people, with SMS/ green bubbles. The group chat has a different name from the first one. But I cannot see the second chat, it's like the two are merged for me. Everyone else can see and participate in the second group chat, but I am receiving the SMS texts from the second group in the first one. When I reply, the other iPhone users see my replies as iMessage in the first group. The dumb phone user cannot see my texts.

Why are my messages still being sent as iMessage instead of SMS? Why is my phone merging the two group chats? How do I get it to stop or create a chat we can all participate in?

Someone in your group or you needs to be provisioned by their/your phone carrier to use MMS.