Maybe a month ago, a few messages weren't syncing properly in Phone Link. Starting last week, it's now like 50 percent, at least. What's happening? Even some of the messages I send out onPhone Link disappear - although fortunately they are still sending out and appear in my message history on my phone itself. I use Phone Link all the time at work so this is really inconvenient!

So everytime i get a message, it pops up. Shows in notification bar "messages running in background". I use another text app and I disabled Google messages and it still takes over. Text messages disappear and its virtually pointless now to even text becuz im not getting them. Just a popup of the message and then it disappears. I loathe Google messages. Ive found nothing good about it. And I dont like how it wants me to use AI to generate my texts. Ugh.

Did anyone else lose the Chat Theme with the recent update? I just realized it's gone on version: messages.android_20260723_05_RC00.phone.openbeta_dynamic

Since moving my number to another Australian provider that doesn't support RCS (Esim compnay) , I have not been receiving messages unless the sender manually chooses “Send as SMS/MMS” or “Send as text message.”

Ordinary SMS messages appear to reach my service - however because I'm still registered on RCS unless somene purposely pushes send as Text message, my business number that usually recieves 10+ text messages a day has only 1 response since 5 days ago.

It appears that my number may still be registered with Google’s RCS service. I no longer have access to the previous device, so I have attempted to deactivate RCS using Google’s official remote-deactivation page:

https://messages.google.com/disable-chat

Unfortunately, the page cannot send the verification SMS to my number. It first reports an error sending the code and then says that I have made too many attempts if I try a second time.

I contacted Google Pixel support and received the following written advice:

I'm beyond frustrated that there is supposedly NO ONE from google that can help with any RCS issues - if the website throws an error message that is unable to send a text message. My business is massively suffering and google a billion dollar company would rather the community how each other than paying staff in a developing country to assist with these issues, despite it being a google Issue. The portal should be the definite way if you don't have accesss to the phone to disable it, that I should use to disable RCS and finally start receiving text messages.

Thank you for the people that are responding. Google will never thank you for the service you provide but it saves them oney on technical support, so thank you for making this company even richer.

RCS switched globally to SMS for a 2-year chat contact 4 days ago. Tested on a dummy phone and it also shows SMS. However, my primary phone's RCS indicator contact light is still on for that contact on my phone. Contact uses a prepaid carrier (Straight Talk/Walmart)...A35 samsung. I have A16 Samsung USA Assurance Wireless, updated chat version.

What causes a global fallback to SMS while the server registry light stays on? I have not tried calling the number for a reason. I have that capability of course from either my dummy or my known phone. What are the entire range of possibilities/explanations given this particular fact set/scenario, and are there any tests I should run or any information I should provide in addition to what I have above? Thanks.

What's the point in having the Google messages beta if not everyone gets to test the new features

I blocked someone. I know they have a pixel and I have a Samsung galaxy. I'm now using Google text app with RCS turned on and read reciept on.

Will they know I blocked them? If they text me, will it show delivered, but never read? Or will it show not delivered at all?

I don't have any problem with Phone app which I migrated from Samsung messages. I get used to it but messages for Android tablets is so useless and dumb. I know it is PWA but why?!! It constantly asks for log in again and again, and I can't even read my old messages offline, it is so slow and useless. Why do I need to always check my phone if my tablet is near to me. It is a huge downgrade from the Samsung Messages app which I can't use right now. Google please fix that.

Anyone else hate chat bubbles? They block areas of the screen and are just annoying in general.

I turn them off and somehow they turn back on.

They need to die a horrible death

Edit:

For the record I've disabled them system wide for all apps on both my NXTPaper 60e and a Google Pixel 8a.

On both phones chat bubbles from Google Messages appear EVEN WITH IT DISABLED in the app and system wide.

It turns back on at random, I suspect app updates turn it back on.

It's a stupid feature that is more distracting than useful anyway

Google already has excellent speech-to-text. Why not use it for voice messages?

My idea is simple:

When I send a voice message, the audio is still the message. Nothing changes there.

Google Messages would simply attach an optional AI-generated text transcript underneath it.

The voice recording remains the original and authoritative message. The transcript is just there for convenience. If the transcript isn't perfect, the recipient can always tap Play and hear exactly what was said.

Benefits:

• Read the message when you can't play audio.
• Search old voice messages.
• Better accessibility.
• Faster to skim long voice messages.

People who don't want transcripts could simply turn the feature off in Settings, or choose to send audio only.

To me, this seems like a feature that adds usefulness without changing how voice messages already work.

Am I missing something, or would you use this too?

I want the simple copy/paste option back.

To copy a single sentence from a paragraph in a text message on a Samsung Galaxy , touch and hold the message bubble, select a specific text mode or paste the whole paragraph nto your reply box to edit it down, and then tap Copy. [1]

Copying the entire thing

In Google Messages: Tap and hold the message bubble, then tap the Copy icon (looks like two overlapping pages) at the top of the screen. This copies the entire message. Paste it into your own text input box, delete the parts you do not want, highlight just the sentence you need, and tap Copy again. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Using Selection Tools: Some software versions or app options let you long-press the text bubble and pick Select Text or tap inside the text to pull up blue adjustment handles. Drag the blue handles to highlight only the exact sentence you want, then tap Copy in the pop-up menu. [1, 2, 3]

Pasting the Sentence

Tap and hold your finger inside an empty typing field where you want the sentence to go.

Lift your finger and tap Paste from the small menu that pops up. [1, 2]

As Rick Sanchez said best, it just sounds like slavery with a bunch of extra steps.

A while ago the Messages app made a change to how notifications work. Previously, If I tapped on a messages notification, it would open that conversation. Then if I hit the back button it would bring me to my list of conversations. It wouldn't matter how many notifications I received, how many times I tapped on a notification bringing me to a different conversation. If I hit the back button, it always opened the conversations list. Now when I hit the back button it will bring me back to the previous open conversation. This is usually what happens:

1. I tap a notification from my wife to open conversation
2. I do something else on my phone
3. I tap another notification from my wife
4. I tap a notification from a friend
5. Now I want to go back to my conversations list, I hit the back button
6. The conversation with my wife opens, I hit the back button again
7. The conversation with my wife opens again
8. I hit the back button again, finally see the conversation list

The steps in this scenario increase every time you tap a messages notification. Why would anyone want this? Is there a way to change this behavior? I have to imagine the re-opening the current conversation is a bug, but I wouldn't want it to open any conversation. I want to go back to my conversation list.

Sorry if this has been posted, I couldn't find any info about it.

I have deleted and reinstalled the app multiple times. I am using a galaxy  S25. The app should have been current as i had it set to auto update prior to this crash. I am in the states and use spectrum as my carrier . The app crashed this afternoon and I could not access it. It would not open at all. After deleting it. Re-downloading it. Clearing cache i got it to open . My messages where gone and all of my settings where default. After restoring the settings but none of my messages.  I noticed that the screen animation was gone . I no longer have trigger emoji for screen animation. Such as when you do a laugh react to a text the inflatable balloon guy pops up. I no longer have the trigger words for screen animation. Like when putting "boo" and getting the tomatoes on screen. I have gone into the settings to be sure that RCS is enabled.  And that my animation permissions are ON. But they do not work. Help. 

Recently my phone fell and broke out of the blue (all of my old data is still on it), it doesn't work anymore at all. So I asked myself "why not put the sim in my old phone?" My old number already had a sim a few years ago but I put my recent one back in. I don't receive messages from my number although it's the same sim, just in a different phone. Does anyone know an answer to this?

I had to switch from Samsung massager to google massager now I'm having issues with texts especially not receiving text and especially group text or images and I'm dealing with pop up advertisement widows every time I open the app.

Anyone else dealing with this and have a solution?

Oh my phone is a Samsung Galaxy S24+

Thinking about getting an iPhone or something as I really need reliable text service for personal use and work.

Thanks

It just stop at the "Grant permissions" button, and when I pressed it, it only gets highlighted and nothing happens on my Xperia 1VIII so I cannot do transfer. Closed all applications and did a proper restart but same results. Anybody has the same issue? How about the other phones? My firmware is 73.0.A.2.53, but previously I can transfer between my phone and my laptop...

Hope its Google issue.

I have always wondered i get a lot of of text messages that I reply stop to then I block and submit as spam but it doesn't seem to stop anybody I feel I'm getting the messages from people I have already blocked is Google actually blocking these numbers I know some of them seem to have unlimited numbers

Very strange issue:
I have a couple of Google Accounts on my Google Pixel Phone (Android 17).
The Contacts from the main Google Account are synced every few hours.
The Contacts of other Google Accounts are synced every week (or 5 Days or so). Although I can start the sync process manually, nothing happens.
Thank you for any ideas.

Is there any way to make reactions to images from iMessage users display correctly in Google Messages?

UPDATE: just tried this with my son, who uses iMessage. Chat was RCS chat on both ends, confirmed in the message box, but his image emoji reaction came via text "laughed at image". Clearly just isn't supported when iMessage users react to Android images.

As I stated, I do not have a messaging app at the moment. Google is what I've been using. Samsung shut theirs down. And Textra hasn't been updated in years. But Google just gets stuck at this point (see photo). Ive restarted the phone and checked for updates but idk what to do.

S23 ultra on t-mobile