Samsung Galaxy and Apple for Messages

[EAG]

I have a Samsung Galaxy phone and a plan with no data.  While I can receive one on one messages from family and friends who use Apple phones I miss dozens of messages a month that are group texts from Apple phones.  While I don't get the messages, I do get a notification that I received a message, the time and size.  I don't really receive it as I don't get the actual message sent!  My understanding is that Apple uses iMessage which uses data but will revert to a non data version if sending to an android phone.  But why won't this work for me for group texts from Apple phones? 

[Nighthawk · Accepted solution]

As you know, iMessage messages that usually go between Apple devices are not compatible with Android devices. Normally if an iPhone knows the target device doesn't have iMessage on it or the sending iPhone doesn't get the acknowledgement the message was received, iMessage will send the message as a plain text message that is compatible with pretty much any phone. Whether that works reliably in group messaging I do not know, but it could be where the problem is.