Can't message or call but can wotsapp

[purpleme12]

My child has a friend who she can communicate with on wotsapp - that works
HOWEVER she can't text her (it says an error message, I can't remember what as the phone's not with me) but basically doesn't send, and when she tried to call her it didn't work either

Has anyone else had this?? Why does this happen?

This. Why can’t people spell it correctly?!

Tell that to any safeguarding lead in any school ...

When I had an issue with my SIM everything worked off wifi except for calls and texts. Whatsapp was fine.

Well ok. I can honestly say there's been no trouble on being able to call people normally and no trouble on normal texts. Whereas there has been through wotsapp. So I'm making a judgment based on our experience

It is only because Whatsapp provides the evidence on writing. It isn't as if school children were all lovely to each other in the past and there was never any racism, sexism, sexual harassment or bullying.

I don't disagree but the OP allows her daughter to call and text - is that really different from a safeguarding perspective?

Who's giving SEVEN year old s phones... Fucking hell

Kids shouldn't have WhatsApp... It causes all sorts of issues, see also SnapChat!

Images/videos of and the ability to know if the message has been read, adding to groups etc are more problematic than a child being able to text or call from a brick phone for communication with parents about things like "the bus is late"

But we aren't talking about "a child being able to text or call from a brick phone for communication with parents about things like "the bus is late"". We are talking about a child being able to text her peers (which the OP says she allows).

And you make you can make groups and see if a message is read in texts as well (as least you can on my iPhone). And I can add video, voice, and pictures.

Her texts are normal texts (not RCS)
There are no group chats in text messages.
And she has no group chats on phone calls

Dd had this recently. Phone the company, explain the issue and they should send you a new sim card

the dd will be able to WhatsApp as it uses data, which is unaffected by the issue.

Most younger kids aren't going to have a plan, so would message via WhatsApp because it uses the home WiFi making it free to use. I think you're going to have to allow it for them to communicate outside of school.

Oh wow 😳

Though I suppose with the groups and encryptedness, it makes sense that it causes problems

If you don’t have an active sim you can still use WhatsApp on wifi

maybe her parents have decided that 7 (!) is too young for a phone of her own and she’s just using an old one from a family member with no sim of her own?

WhatsApp might be linked to a different number to the sim that’s in the phone

Are you replying to me or someone else?
My child is not 7 and didn't have a phone at 7

Oh that's interesting

You're entitled to make a decision not to let your dc use WhatsApp.

Likewise, her friend's parents are entitled to make a decision for their dc to have a data only package which doesn't allow calls or texts.

It seems that they will not be able to use their mobile phones to communicate with each other. Frustrating for them, but I guess they will have to suck it up.

I'm surprised that you think group messages don't exist with normal texts. They do, but as far as I know, all group users need to have the same operating system.

It’s WhatsApp. Not Wotsapp - it’s spelt as the word what is.

DH has just had to upgrade his old phone because the switch off of 3G in our region. His phone wasn't new enough to support 4g calling. He could also still use data and WiFi and WhatsApp.

Got the answer now!

@OurChristmasMiracle was right

Wotsapp is linked to a different number to the SIM card on the phone apparently. Cos they're different numbers. So finally sorted it

I really just thought it wotsapp was always the same number as on the sim card!