Speaker 1: Getting your texts when you switch from iPhone to Android.
Speaker 2: What's going on? I'm Rich Dmiro, this is Rich on tech.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I get a lot of emails from you guys. Thanks
Speaker 1: for trusting me to answer them, which I do as
Speaker 1: much as possible. It might take me a little bit
Speaker 1: to write you back sometimes really all depends on my schedule,
Speaker 1: but I do try to respond. So I figured it
Speaker 1: in today's podcast. Let's open up the mailbag and answer
Speaker 1: a question. This is a common one, so I think
Speaker 1: it's a good thing to know about, Faby wrote in
Speaker 1: thanks for keeping us informed with all the tech around us.
Speaker 1: I recently switched from an iPhone six plus to a
Speaker 1: Samsung nine plus.
Speaker 2: But the problem is that.
Speaker 1: My iPhone receives messages from friends that have iPhones, but
Speaker 1: the messages don't go through the s nine plus. My
Speaker 1: kid only uses the iPhone through Wi Fi in the house.
Speaker 1: What can I do to fix the problem. This is
Speaker 1: a great question, Faby, and it happens to a lot
Speaker 1: of people. It used to be a lot worse, but
Speaker 1: now it's getting a little bit better since Apple has
Speaker 1: changed some things. But what's happening basically is that I
Speaker 1: message is still handling your text.
Speaker 2: Messages even though you switch to a new phone.
Speaker 1: It's a very common issue when you switch from iPhone
Speaker 1: to Android.
Speaker 2: Let me explain.
Speaker 1: So, when you set up an iPhone, there's a message
Speaker 1: that asks if you want to activate I Message. This
Speaker 1: is Apple's proprietary text messaging program. It looks like a text,
Speaker 1: but it's really being sent through Apple servers, and you
Speaker 1: get some benefits because of that when you do this.
Speaker 1: When you turn on this feature, Apple basically turns your
Speaker 1: phone number into an I Message ID, kind of like
Speaker 1: think about it a username on any other service, except
Speaker 1: in this case, it's literally using your phone number. Then,
Speaker 1: when you go to text someone, if Apple notices that
Speaker 1: that person is also using I Message, it will route
Speaker 1: your text message through their own messaging system and not
Speaker 1: the carriers. So it's actually Apple delivering your message. And
Speaker 1: all this is happening in a pretty invisible way to you,
Speaker 1: the end user. Your only indication that this is all
Speaker 1: going on is that I messages are shown in blue,
Speaker 1: and regular old fashioned SMS or text messages are shown
Speaker 1: in green. Perhaps that's a nod to Android's green color.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I messages look and act like text messages, but they
Speaker 1: also have kind of some superpowers, like you can send
Speaker 1: full resolution photos, big videos.
Speaker 2: You can see when someone's looked at your message or
Speaker 2: when they're typing a reply. People love this.
Speaker 1: It's one of the top features on the iPhone. It's
Speaker 1: something that Apple created and it's pretty brilliant and it
Speaker 1: works pretty well until you switch to an Android. Apple
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily know that your phone number has left their
Speaker 1: system now. Since your number is still linked to an
Speaker 1: I Message account, iPhones and other devices basically are still
Speaker 1: trying to route your text through I Message. This means
Speaker 1: that you might still see your I messages on another
Speaker 1: Apple device, like a maccomputer or an iPad, even though
Speaker 1: your phone isn't getting them your new phone that is
Speaker 1: the S nine. What you need to do is deactivate
Speaker 1: or de register your phone number from I Message.
Speaker 2: You can do this in two different ways.
Speaker 1: You can go into your iPhone before you swap it
Speaker 1: out for an Android, then go into messages and turn
Speaker 1: off the toggle for I Message. This will tell Apple
Speaker 1: that you don't want to get your messages through I
Speaker 1: Message anymore. You also need to do the same for
Speaker 1: FaceTime if you've already wiped your phone or you don't
Speaker 1: have it, or you've gotten rid of it. You can
Speaker 1: then use a special website that Apple's set up to
Speaker 1: help you do this if you don't have your phone.
Speaker 1: It's called deregister I Message, and you can find a
Speaker 1: link to it in the show notes. Or you can
Speaker 1: go to self solve dot Apple dot com slash deregister
Speaker 1: dash I message. I know that's a handful, but once
Speaker 1: you go to this website, you pop in your phone number.
Speaker 1: Apple will send you a text to confirm that you
Speaker 1: still own the number.
Speaker 2: They don't want you doing this for your friends.
Speaker 1: Then I message will be deactivated. Now, keep in mind
Speaker 1: it can take up to twenty four hours for all
Speaker 1: of this to actually kick in. That means for your
Speaker 1: phone number deactivation to sort of propagate through Apple systems.
Speaker 1: In that time, friends might still not be able to
Speaker 1: send you text messages. Now, this used to be a
Speaker 1: lot worse, this kind of problem, but it's gotten a
Speaker 1: lot better in recent years.
Speaker 2: I think Apple's kind of gotten hip to this.
Speaker 1: If things aren't working after a long time and your
Speaker 1: friends still can't get their messages through to you texting
Speaker 1: from iPhones, that is, you can tell them to delete
Speaker 1: your entire previous message conversation and start over from scratch.
Speaker 1: Usually deleting that then making a new text message with
Speaker 1: your phone number to the Android phone will definitely work.
Speaker 2: They're gonna lose.
Speaker 1: Your entire message history together, but that usually fixes the
Speaker 1: problem as a last resort. So there's the long short
Speaker 1: answer to your question. Fabi, Thanks so much for writing in,
Speaker 1: and I think it helped a lot of people because
Speaker 1: this happens a lot. I get this question very often.
Speaker 1: If you have a question for me, just go to
Speaker 1: my website to ask Rich on tech dot, TV, slash contact,
Speaker 1: and as always I will do my best to respond.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. I'm Rich Damiro I'll talk
Speaker 1: to you real soon.