I can't switch text messaging back from my email address to my phone number. iPhone 6 iOS 9.2 So I just got a replacement iPhone, and activated it. I tried sending a text message and it wouldn't go through. I went to my messaging settings and clicked send and receive, and it had my phone number and email under "you can be reached by message at." However, next to my phone number, it had the loading wheel and there was no option to "Start new conversations from." 

I reset my phone and when I try to click "use your apple id for iMessage and sign in, it says that I can't connect to the server. 

Is there a way to troubleshoot this or alternate steps?
The loading wheel indicates that the servers that handle messaging on Apple's end are still busy processing your request.

It's kind of a busy day and you might have done everything correct - but if the servers are overloaded, you won't be able to use the activation / iMessage.

Some things to check:


http://apple.com/support/systemstatus
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201422


The second link is a great checklist - if you've done everything listed, it might be time to contact your cellular carrier and have them verify you can send/receive SMS. Once that's done, Apple's support is the next step to have them look into your account specifically if there isn't a general slowdown or outage. It does say that 24 hours can be the time needed for an activation to be processed. I presume they have engineers that look at all the failed activations and process or clear them manually or programatically - but I can't say that for certain.