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Google Messages allows any Android phone to take advantage of RCS messaging, which has improved the push for the SMS replacement standard. That’s partly why some see it as an Android alternative to iMessage, Apple’s proprietary messaging platform for iDevices. Whether you think the same or not, it’s still an imperfect competitor, and recently users have found annoying issues that either kept their RCS Chat messages in eternal limbo or prevented them from setting it up.
ReviewGeek’s Cameron Summerson (a former Android police student) complained earlier this month about an issue he was having with Google Messages where most RCS messages sent to him were not delivered, describing them like stuck in “RCS hell”. For context, a long time ago “iMessage hell” was a real problem where iPhone users upgrading to Android were not receiving messages from friends using iPhone because their phone number was still stored on the servers. Apple as the active iMessage destination. Thus, these messages were sent via iMessage to an undeliverable number, where they would be stuck in limbo for centuries. The problem got so bad that Apple had to create a separate online form to deregister your iMessage number if you no longer had your iPhone.
For some, these RCS issues manifest in much the same way except that it happens randomly, on its own, without changing the phone or device type. RCS / Chat messages simply do not arrive. It’s not immediately clear why this is happening, and we’ve seen a consistent low level of related complaints, coupled with brief bursts of more widespread reporting.
In Summerson’s case, the phone was stuck in this state for at least 4 days (when the problem apparently resolved out of the blue), and the phone was stuck in “Status: Checking” whenever the The app’s “Chat Features” section has been verified.
Another similar and possibly related issue has been reported to us intermittently by many readers and is currently a hot topic on Google’s support forums (it is currently marked as resolved there). In this particular case, users get stuck on “Login” or “Trying to verify” instead of “Verification”. We don’t know if affected people also went through “RCS hell” from delayed / undeliverable messages, but we do know that trying to delete cache, update, delete app data or trying the same on the Carrier Services app don’t do anything to fix it, although these are some of the usual RCS troubleshooting tools.
In this case, we see waves of heightened intercourse amidst a constant background noise of those suffering from more continuous problems. These waves usually improve and then resolve themselves a few days later.
The “Status: Connection” error in Google Messages. Thanks to Chau for the screenshot!
We reached out to Google for further clarification on this and the seemingly episodic nature of the most prevalent reports of RCS issues, and a Google spokesperson told us that the company is aware of the issue and has done so. actively sought to minimize its occurrence. They also recommended that affected users go to “Chat Features” and press “Verify your number” to make sure your number is verified correctly.
Another potential solution is to deregister your RCS phone number. Just like Apple, Google also provides an online form to turn off RCS / Chat messaging for your phone number. You will need to get there and then scroll down to the “Without your old phone” option. From there, just enter your phone number, enter the verification code that Google sends to that number, and Google will deregister your phone number on its end. If any messages were stuck in “RCS hell” and the SMS fallback did not work for some reason, you should start receiving messages shortly after, as Google will not continue to keep these messages for RCS.
Later, if you wish, you can try re-registering with RCS to see if the issue is resolved – it may or may not work.
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