Re-activate iMessage on your iPhone

iMessage is a service run on Apple's servers, and the first time it connects it needs to activate and register the Apple ID you're using with the device you're using. The way it does that is by having you login with your Apple ID. If the connection is ever lost for some reason, it may ask you to do it again.

 

If for some reason it looks like iMessage is stuck on the Activation screen, wait for a few minutes, then try the following, in the following order:

    Turn iMessage off and then on again, wait a few minutes
    Turn Airplane mode on and then off again, turn iMessage off and then on again, wait a few minutes
    Make sure your iPhone is on Wi-Fi, reboot your iPhone, turn iMessage off and then on again, wait a few minutes
    Wait and try again later -- Apple's servers can get overwhelmed or experience outages just like anyone else's

If none of that works, jump into our forum and we'll troubleshoot with you.

Once iMessage activates you can send and receive texts and multimedia messages with other Apple users just like SMS and MMS.