{"id":313402,"date":"2021-08-01T16:00:09","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T13:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/android-has-a-big-messaging-problem-and-it-broke-my-texts-for-a-week-review-geek\/"},"modified":"2021-08-01T16:00:09","modified_gmt":"2021-08-01T13:00:09","slug":"android-has-a-big-messaging-problem-and-it-broke-my-texts-for-a-week-review-geek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/android-has-a-big-messaging-problem-and-it-broke-my-texts-for-a-week-review-geek\/","title":{"rendered":"#Android Has a Big Messaging Problem, and It Broke My Texts for a Week \u2013 Review Geek"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a41301bb75db\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a41301bb75db\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/android-has-a-big-messaging-problem-and-it-broke-my-texts-for-a-week-review-geek\/#Cool_Story_Bro_But_What_Even_Is_RCS\" >Cool Story, Bro. But What Even Is RCS?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/android-has-a-big-messaging-problem-and-it-broke-my-texts-for-a-week-review-geek\/#RCS_Hell_Is_a_Real_Place_and_Ive_Been_There\" >RCS Hell Is a Real Place, and I\u2019ve Been There<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/android-has-a-big-messaging-problem-and-it-broke-my-texts-for-a-week-review-geek\/#Google_Needs_a_Better_Fallback_System\" >Google Needs a Better Fallback System<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/android-has-a-big-messaging-problem-and-it-broke-my-texts-for-a-week-review-geek\/#Unfortunately_You_Get_What_You_Get_for_Now\" >Unfortunately, You Get What You Get for Now<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><strong>&#8220;#Android Has a Big Messaging Problem, and It Broke My Texts for a Week \u2013 Review Geek&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-content-area\">\n<figure style=\"width: 1920px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"type:primaryImage wp-image-93623 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.reviewgeek.com\/p\/uploads\/2021\/07\/16b19b80.jpg?width=400 400w, https:\/\/www.reviewgeek.com\/p\/uploads\/2021\/07\/16b19b80.jpg?width=1200 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, 400w, 1200w\" src=\"https:\/\/www.reviewgeek.com\/p\/uploads\/2021\/07\/16b19b80.jpg?width=1200\" alt=\"Texts sent over SMS on a Pixel 5, Pink Floyd lyrics for 'Comfortably Numb'\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" data-credittext=\"Cameron Summerson\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"type:primaryImage imagecredit\">Cameron Summerson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When Google starting rolling out RCS messaging (Google Chat) in Android Messages, I couldn\u2019t wait to try it. And it\u2019s been fantastic\u2014iMessage-like functionality with other Android users is awesome. That is, until last week when Google Chat refused to connect, and I was stuck in RCS Hell for four days.<\/p>\n<p>What does that mean, exactly? It means that Chat disconnected, so all RCS features ceased to function. Other RCS\/Chat users were getting my messages over SMS, but that didn\u2019t work both ways\u2014they were responding, the messages were showing as \u201cdelivered,\u201d but I didn\u2019t get them. Basically, messages were ending up in some purgatory, and everyone thought I was ignoring them. Considering the context and timeliness of some of these conversations, that left me in a bad spot.<\/p>\n<p>Before we get into the trenches, however, a few things need to be clarified. To start, I use \u201cGoogle Chat\u201d and \u201cRCS\u201d interchangeably here. No need to think past that\u2014for the scope of this article, they are the same. Secondly, well, let\u2019s talk about what RCS actually is.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Cool_Story_Bro_But_What_Even_Is_RCS\"><\/span>Cool Story, Bro. But What Even Is RCS?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Ah, yes. I\u2019m glad you asked! RCS stands for <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/349968\/what-is-rcs-the-successor-to-sms\/\">Rich Communication Service<\/a>, and it\u2019s destined to (hopefully, eventually) be the replacement for SMS (Short Messaging Service). As text messaging has gotten more prolific (and the primary form of communication for many), it\u2019s also become abundantly clear how limited it really is.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve ever used iMessage on an iPhone or iPad, then you\u2019re basically familiar with how RCS works. \u00a0It\u2019s a \u201ctrue\u201d messaging platform\u2014you can see when people are typing, react to messages, send higher quality video and images, and more. It\u2019s what most people have come to expect from an instant messaging platform.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s fantastic \u2026 until it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"RCS_Hell_Is_a_Real_Place_and_Ive_Been_There\"><\/span>RCS Hell Is a Real Place, and I\u2019ve Been There<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 1920px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-93621 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.reviewgeek.com\/p\/uploads\/2021\/07\/f1fd7410.jpg\" alt=\"Google Chat services showing connected on a Pixel 5\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" data-credittext=\"Cameron Summerson\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">There was a time when I thought I might never see this screen again. <span class=\"imagecredit\">Cameron Summerson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>iPhone users who switch to Android have likely experienced what\u2019s commonly called \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=imessage+hell&amp;oq=imessage+hell&amp;aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30l5.1458j0j7&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8\">iMessage Hell<\/a>.\u201d When the phone number is still associated with iMessage, that\u2019s where messages go. So if you switch to Android without first deregistering iMessage, those messages get lost into the abyss.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s such a big issue that <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">App<\/a>le had to build a way for users to <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/395214\/how-to-disable-and-deactivate-imessage-on-iphone-or-ipad\/\">deregister iMessage<\/a> <i>after<\/i> they\u2019ve jumped ship. Back in the day, there was no easy way to fix this once the iPhone was gone.<\/p>\n<p>RCS Hell, as described earlier, is basically the same thing. It\u2019s a purgatory for messages that have a destination but no means to get there. They\u2019re left, just floating around in cyberspace doing whatever unread, undelivered messages do, which I can only assume involves weeping and gnashing of teeth.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the difference: there\u2019s no way for Android users to fix that. I know because I tried. Here\u2019s how it all went down.<\/p>\n<p>Last Wednesday, I was at the Kia dealership having some work done on my car. I tried to send my wife a text, but it sat on the \u201csending\u201d screen for a <i>long<\/i> time. I checked the internet connection, my VPN, and the mobile network. I restarted my phone. Nothing helped.<\/p>\n<p>Then I checked the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/702461\/how-to-check-if-you-have-rcs\/\">status of Google Chat<\/a>, and it was stuck on \u201cStatus: Verifying.\u201d I verified my phone number, but it wouldn\u2019t connect. I tried a quick internet search and tested all the available \u201cfixes,\u201d which did absolutely nothing.<\/p>\n<p>After two days of trying on my own, I contacted Google Pixel support (one of the many perks of owning a Pixel phone, by the way), who had me try several different fixes that I hadn\u2019t already attempted. Again, nothing. By the end, we\u2019d exhausted all the normal fixes and Google claimed it was my carrier. But that didn\u2019t make any sense at all, because it worked fine on my wife\u2019s phone.<\/p>\n<p>Off to Cricket Wireless I went. If\u00a0I\u2019ve learned anything over my 10-year career, it\u2019s that carrier employees know little to nothing about, well, anything. I tried to explain the issue, and as I expected, the service rep had no idea what I was saying. I had a hunch it might be the SIM card, so I just asked for a SIM swap after about 15 minutes of getting nowhere else.<\/p>\n<p>Guess what? That didn\u2019t fix it either. It had been three days since Chat last worked.<\/p>\n<p>During all this, I had been disabling Chat to send SMS messages to people. They were getting those, but responses were still going into the abyss, despite having Chat disabled. The only way I was able to get any response was if the person manually went in and manually forced the message to send as SMS. That\u2019s just too much hassle to even explain, let alone get someone to actually do\u2014it\u2019s not intuitive at all for most \u201cnormal\u201d users.<\/p>\n<p>After four days and dozens of attempts to get Chat to connect to no avail, it finally reconnected last Saturday morning. As suddenly as it stopped working, it started again. I got a flood of messages\u2014probably 80 or more\u2014including a few from people I didn\u2019t know had even tried to text me. Oops.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no indication of what caused the issue in the first place, nor what fixed it. It just all happened.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Google_Needs_a_Better_Fallback_System\"><\/span>Google Needs a Better Fallback System<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-93618\" src=\"https:\/\/www.reviewgeek.com\/p\/uploads\/2021\/07\/aeab9e2f.jpg\" alt=\"A message sent of Chat\/RCS on a Pixel 5\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<p>So, here\u2019s the issue: if RCS fails, it\u2019s supposed to fall back to SMS. But in my case, it didn\u2019t\u2014and I\u2019m not the only one. A quick search showed that this is an issue for a lot of people. Considering that a large number of people have important conversations over text, this is unacceptable.<\/p>\n<p>As outlined earlier, Apple offers a way to deregister iMessage in the event the user switches platforms, but this could just as easily be used if there\u2019s an iMessage issue. Google\u2019s current method of simply disabling Chat features on the user end is not good enough.<\/p>\n<p>There should be a simple way to unenroll from RCS completely. That way, in an event like this, messages still come through. Then the user can have the option to re-enroll later if they choose. But it would effectively do away with RCS Hell, at least until a better method surfaces.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Unfortunately_You_Get_What_You_Get_for_Now\"><\/span>Unfortunately, You Get What You Get for Now<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Alas, I don\u2019t have a good solution for you <i>right now<\/i>. If you landed on this article after having Google Chat issues, I\u2019m sorry. You\u2019ve likely already tried all the \u201cfixes\u201d out there\u2014clearing data for Carrier Services and Messages, resetting network settings, pulling updates, or even trying beta software. If those didn\u2019t fix it for you, I don\u2019t know what will.<\/p>\n<p>If you haven\u2019t experienced any Chat\/RCS issues, then I hope you don\u2019t. As I said, it worked perfectly for me for months. And it has continued to work perfectly since reconnecting last weekend.<\/p>\n<p>If you haven\u2019t yet enabled RCS or your carrier doesn\u2019t support it at this time, you might want to consider the implications if you choose to use it. SMS has been around for a long time, and while it\u2019s not perfect, it\u2019s rock solid. If you have cell service, SMS will work 99.9% of the time.<\/p>\n<p>That said, I\u2019m still sticking with RCS and hoping this disconnect crap doesn\u2019t happen again. The benefits are vast, and the drawbacks are few\u2014especially if it stays connected all the time.\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>\nsetTimeout(function(){\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('init', '1137093656460433');\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n  },3000);\n<\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reviewgeek.com\/93307\/android-has-a-big-messaging-problem-and-it-broke-my-texts-for-a-week\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Android Has a Big Messaging Problem, and It Broke My Texts for a Week \u2013 Review Geek&#8221; Cameron Summerson When Google starting rolling out RCS messaging (Google Chat) in Android Messages, I couldn\u2019t wait to try it. And it\u2019s been fantastic\u2014iMessage-like functionality with other Android users is awesome. That is, until last week when Google&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":313403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.reviewgeek.com\/p\/uploads\/2021\/07\/16b19b80.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-313402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}