after I send a text I get a grey area in the message box.

When I turned off enable dictation I also noticed turn off autocorrect, YAY! Hate autocorrect. I'll add that turning off dictation worked, and that set up a different microphone to the right of where you input texts, so I'll try using that and see if the problem returns. This has to be the crankiest update EVER! Darn ios9.2!

The solution is simply to close the app, then open it again. You do this by double-tapping the home button and then swiping upwards on the relevant app. Remember to limit electromagnetic radiation service connection time folks (mobile internet, 3G, 4G, WiFi) - as handy as iMessage may be, electrosmog is NOT good for us at ALL!

What worked for me was to go to settings and in Messages, turn on Show Subject Field. Maybe someone already suggested this. Not sure. And why it worked??? No idea!

I had the same issue where there was a gray area but no microphone. I Found this website and problem is solved. I disabled iMessage and tested by sending texts to people with both iMessage and without and no more gray area.

http://www.payetteforward.com/a-gray-box-is-blocking-messages-on-my-iphone-the-f ix/

Perfect response. That works.

You can't see the microphone unless your Imessenger is turned on in your phone. If you go into Settings, Messages, and then turn on iMessage, the microphone pops up to the right. Then you can press and get rid of the grey area.

This is all very odd-I have that gray box appear also but it doesn't seem to be able to receive dictation. I don't want to turn dictation off because I use it all the time, in fact, I'm using it right now. I've have the gray box appear after or while I'm dictating the "normal" way by using the keyboard mic. I'm using a 6+ but it doesn't seem to matter what phone anybody has.

Does it only appear with i messaging?

This is also interesting-I'm on my phone, using dictation and this reply box is buggy. If dictation makes a mistake I can't seem to go back to correct it unless I hit "Done". It also seems to stop responding, either typing or dictation, until I again click "Done".

This happened to me after I sent a photo MMS to two recipients, one on iMessage, the other via standard messaging.

I went to type some text and discovered that I couldn't see what I was typing, the text was hidden by the gray box and the Send button was greyed out. I tried quitting Messages by double-clicking the Home button and swiping it up off the stack, but that didn't work. Restarting worked to clear out the gray box, but yikes.

Next time I'll try the trick of starting a text to an iMessage recipient, and then tapping the little mic to the right of the gray box to dismiss. I hope there is no next time, tho! I don't want to have to turn of dictation, which is pretty effing useful for texting while walking.

This issue is usually fixed by force quitting the messages app - if that doesn't help, reset all settings works as well.

this link solved the problem for me

I am sure apple will fix this soon

www.payetteforward.com/a-gray-box-is-blocking-messages-on-my-iphone-the-fix/

Thanks. That worked for me.

I found this reply that worked for me: press the on/off button at the same time as the home button. Wait until the mac apple appears. Then let go of the buttons. Problem should be solved