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When you have updated your iPhone to iOS 26, you probably expected to try a lot of new features. Perhaps you were delighted to see the new liquid glass design, or interested in seeing how the new spam prevention technology works. But if you have opened up messages to send an SMS after update, you may have encountered a frustrating problem: suddenly, you are not able to activate Imessage with your phone number.
It is not clear to what extent the problem is widespread at the moment, but it seems to be a problem large enough for Apple to be officially addressed. As macrumors pointed out, Apple now has official repair stages for anyone who encounters imperial activation problems specifically after updating to iOS 26.
Although we did not know the scope of affected users, we know who could be affected. According to Apple, the problem can occur when updating to iOS 26 if you have an inactive SIM with the same phone number as your active SIM. If this is your problem, you may encounter the following problems:
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When you try to send an iMessage, you get an “unvilled” notification.
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You can only send SMS or RCS messages – or, in other words, green bubble texts only.
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Your messages sent go through your email address instead of your phone number when you have not configured it this way.
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You see the same phone number twice under Settings> Applications> Messages> Send and receive.
Reactivate Imessage after installed iOS 26
If this is the case, the fix is quite simple: all you have to do is delete or delete the inactive SIM card. Here is what to do: First, head to Settings> cellular. If you see two sims here with the same number, choose the one that is not active. If the inactive SIM card is a physical SIM card, remove it from your iPhone. If it is an ESIM, choose “Delete ESIM” to delete it.
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Once you get rid of the inactive SIM card, head to Settings> Applications > MessagesThen choose “send and receive”. Here, choose your phone number, which should trigger Imessage to reactivate.
If you still have problems with Imessage after following these steps, your problem may not have to do with this bug. Apple has a series of general troubleshooting steps to operate Imessage, which includes things such as Imessage and FaceTime transformation out of time, activating your online account and using your email address to log into your account instead.
