This is interesting, as Skinny/Spark was the first to activate RCS in the network. I ported my Skinny to 2Degrees on account due to the small business 50% off deal, and I too seem to fail to activate chat features in messenger. May be it doesn't really work on ported numbers?
Edit: My status so far is still at 'setting up' and verify your mobile number comes blue every so often like it's not verifying ...