What to do if you can’t activate iMessage with your phone number in iOS 26

When you upgrade to iOS 26, you might face an issue activating iMessage with your phone number if you have an inactive SIM card with the same phone number as your active SIM.

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If you encounter this problem after updating to iOS 26, you may encounter the following issues:

• iMessages fail to send and receive, resulting in a “Not Delivered” alert.

• Text messages can only be sent and received as SMS/RCS messages that appear as green bubbles.

• Messages are unexpectedly sent using an email address instead of a phone number.

• The same phone number may be displayed twice under Settings > Apps > Messages > Send & Receive.

To resolve this issue, simply remove or delete your inactive SIM card.

Remove or delete an inactive SIM and activate iMessage

1. In the Settings app, tap Cellular. 
2. If there are two SIMs displayed that have the same phone number, find the one that is no longer active. If the inactive SIM is a physical SIM, remove the physical SIM. If the inactive SIM is an eSIM, tap Delete eSIM to remove the inactive eSIM.
3. After you remove the inactive SIM, return to the Settings app and tap Apps.
4. Tap Messages.
5. Tap Send & Receive.
6. Tap the displayed phone number to activate iMessage.

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Dan Uff

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