SMS/Texting not working after ios 8 update. iMessage is still working.

Hello pt1999,

After reviewing your post, I have located an article that can help in this situation. It contains a number of troubleshooting steps and helpful advice concerning iMessage and SMS issues:

iOS: Troubleshooting Messages

If you can't send and receive SMS

You will need these to send and receive SMS:

• An iPhone
• A strong cellular network connection through a cellular network provider
• A domestic SMS plan from your cellular provider (You might need an international messaging plan to send SMS to an international contact. Contact your carrier for more information)
• A roaming SMS plan when you use a cellular provider's network that is different from your billing cellular provider's network (Learn more about roaming and contact your carrier for more information.)

To resolve issues sending and receiving SMS, follow these steps

1. Go to Settings and turn airplane mode off.
2. Make sure that you have a cellular network signal in the status bar of your iPhone. If there's no signal, learn more about troubleshooting no service.
3. Restart your iPhone.
4. Tap Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings on your iPhone.
5. Remove your SIM card and insert it again.

If you still can't send or receive SMS, follow these steps

1. Make sure that the contact who's trying to message you isn't blocked in Settings > Messages > Blocked.
2. Make sure that you're using the area code with the contact's phone number. When sending messages internationally, you also need to use the contact's international code.
3. If you're using a "Pay as you go" SMS plan, make sure it has enough available balance. Contact your carrier if you're unsure of your SMS plan or the available balance.
4. If the issue occurs with a specific contact or contacts, back up or forward important messages and delete your current messaging threads with the contact. Create a new message to the contact and try again.
5. If the issue occurs with a specific contact or contacts, delete and recreate the contact from the Contacts app. Send a new message to the contact.
6. Back up and restore your iPhone as new.
7. If your carrier has recently ported your phone number, the porting process might not be complete. Contact your carrier to confirm that the porting process is complete.
8. Contact your carrier to confirm that you're provisioned for sending SMS and are in an area with cellular coverage.
9. Contact your carrier to verify there are no blocks or filters placed on your wireless account preventing you from sending SMS.

Thank you for contributing to Apple Support Communities.

Cheers,
BobbyD

ive updated my iOS to 8.0.2 the latest. but still no group messaging option in the Messages settings. now i cannot send SMS to a group of contacts even if they are only 5. PLEASE HELP ME. Ive already tried the links given by apple here but nothing's changed. thanks

I had the same experience: newly upgrade to ios 8.0.2 and a iPhone 5s: Most of the group messages did not work (- but a few did?)
and the suggestions from bobby_d didn't help.
But when I made a connection to iCloud /iCloud Drive , and restarted my iPhone - it went OK again !!!?

Do you have Tmobile?

This fixed it for me:

http://apn-settings.com/t-mobile-apn-iphone-5/

I just got off the phone with Verizon - the issue is with their "Advanced Calling" feature. If you turned this on, you are likely to to have problems when you or the recipient is outside the 4g network. Easy fix is to turn this new feature off: Settings > Cellular > Enable LTE > use "Data Only"

I just called Verizon about this and there was a very simple fix which had to do with the default settings on the phone. I could not send texts when I turned off data. The default has send as SMS to off and that's what you need to send texts when your data is turned off. With the settings below, you can use imessage when your data is on and SMS when your data is off.

Go to Settings---Messages----turn on imessage (if not already on)---turn on SEND AS SMS

I've had the same issue. Problem was that iMessage was configured to receive messages to my mobile number as well as my email id. As long as at least one of my devices was online, people could not send me plain SMS messages. I went to Settings->Messages->Send&Receive->Can be reached by iMessage at and unchecked my email id. This solved my problem.

If you have an iPhone, iMac and an iPad then you will need to go into your iPhone settings, messages and click text message forwarding. This is on an AT&T phone. Now I am receiving and sending SMS and iMessages through which ever device I want. It will send you a code on your device that you have to enter into your phone and then you should be up and running. Hope this helps someone.