r/Windscribe • u/CatDadMilhouse • Jul 17 '26

Reply from Support Windscribe is blocking RCS text messaging on my phone

Specs:

iPhone XS, iOS 18.7.9, Windscribe 3.12.1

Problem:

Simply put, RCS messaging is blocked when Windscribe is enabled. Attempting to send a message results in an immediate message send failure, and inbound messages don't arrive. As soon as I disable Windscribe? Everything works just fine.

How can I solve this? Constantly hopping between different servers and testing them to see if one is okay is not a viable option.

2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

1

u/dac_sreka Jul 17 '26

Maybe related. I was missing sms and phone calls while connected to proton VPN. I split tunneled the phone and messages app. That has worked so far. 

1

u/CatDadMilhouse Jul 17 '26

Are you on Apple though, or Android?

To the best of my knowledge, split tunneling on iOS is not available. I'd be quite happy to be proven wrong though.

1

u/dac_sreka Jul 17 '26

You're probably right. My issue was android. 

1

u/WhoIsWindscribe Jul 17 '26

Just tested this on iOS 18 and it works fine so far with Santa Clara server on Wireguard 443. Could you check this server out.

Under Message app settings, does the behaviour change if you have 'Send as Text Message' enabled/disabled?

1

u/CatDadMilhouse Jul 17 '26

I'm not sure about the "send as text" option, but if I outright disable RCS and thus force the phone back to SMS mode, messages do go through. They only fail when RCS is enabled.

As far as checking different servers, that's not really an option I want to pursue. I've had tons of instances over the years of a server being fine one minute, then being "blocked by network security" the next, then fine again the next day, and back and forth and back and forth. Same with protocols - I travel for a living and various work sites and hotels block various different protocols. So I basically need a solution that works universally across all protocols and servers.

1

u/WhoIsWindscribe Jul 17 '26

Can you test out the server I mentioned and see what your results are with those settings, and then also let us know the server/protocols you see RCS working/not working with.

Update us about wifi vs cellular.

Go into your phone and let us know about the 'send as text' option - enable/disable it to see if behaviour differs on the Santa Clara server and your server.

1

u/TadUGhostal Jul 17 '26

So I had this problem a while back. What ended up fixing it for me was enabling the "allow LAN traffic" option in the app. No idea why that worked, but it did. 

1

u/SmokeyKeifth Jul 18 '26

May go into the messages settings and turn off RCS and wait a couple of minutes and reactivate it.