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How do I activate my iMessages in iPhone 7 Plus?

My iMessages won’t activate. It just say waiting for activation. It’s been this way for a few days now. It also says send and receive to my email instead of my number. I’m new to the Apple world but it’s my understanding that so long as you and the person you are texting have iPhones, you can FaceTime and text for free without service. Well, my iMessages stopped working for some reason. Please help me!

Posted on Mar 1, 2018 8:54 PM

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1 reply

Mar 2, 2018 3:21 PM in response to Brittanyyyyyyyyy

Hello, Brittanyyyyyyyyy.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities.

It's my understanding that you're unable to activate iMessage on your iPhone 7 Plus. I do have a suggestion that may help with this. Check out this article and try some of these steps: If you get an error when trying to activate iMessage or FaceTime

If you get an error when trying to activate iMessage or FaceTime

To use iMessage or FaceTime, you need to activate them on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. If you see an error message during activation, follow these steps.

When activating iMessage or FaceTime, you might see one of these messages:

  • Waiting for activation
  • Activation unsuccessful
  • An error occurred during activation
  • Could not sign in, please check your network connection


User uploaded file

Check your device settings

  1. Make sure that you’re connected to a cellular data or Wi-Fi network. If you're using an iPhone, you need SMS messaging to activate your phone number with iMessage and FaceTime. Depending on your carrier, you might be charged for this SMS.
  2. Go to Settings > General > Date & Time and make sure that your time zone is set correctly.


User uploaded file

Turn off and restart iMessage and FaceTime

  1. Go to Settings > Messages and turn off iMessage.
  2. Go to Settings > FaceTime and turn off FaceTime.
  3. Restart your device.
  4. Turn iMessage and FaceTime back on.


User uploaded file

Still not activated after a day?

It might take up to 24 hours to activate iMessage and FaceTime. If the issue continues after 24 hours, follow these steps:

  1. Make sure that your device has the latest version of iOS.
  2. If you're using an iPhone, contact your carrier to make sure that you can receive SMS messages.
  3. Contact Apple Support.
The last step would be to contact Apple Support if you're still unable to get iMessage to activate.

Let me know if this helps.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

Cheers!

How do I activate my iMessages in iPhone 7 Plus?

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