Android 13 is causing problems with RCS for some Google Fi users
Google likes to toutRCSas the end of its past messaging misfortunes; in a way, it’s a solution to many problems. It’s a replacement for SMS that brings many modern features, such as typing indicators and high-quality photo and video sending. But RCS breaks more often than it should. Amid a campaign by Google toshame Apple into using RCS(rhetoric that has been unsuccessful thus far andlikely has little chance of working), the system has broken for a handful of Google Fi users after updating their Pixels toAndroid 13.
Some users have reported (via9to5Google) that after installing Android 13, RCS stopped working correctly on their Google Fi phones. While it works while using Wi-Fi, switching to mobile data makes it switch to a message that reads “Connecting…”. It doesn’t seem to be happening to everyone, but a handful of users are affected by the issue. It has been a problem since the Android 13 betaif a bug report is anything to go by, and it has carried over to the stable version.
What can you do for now? Back in May, when the issue was first spotted, a Google employee recommended the following steps to try and get it to work:
At the moment, Google has stated that it has shared the issue with its product and engineering team, so the company is hopefully looking into the issue and, perhaps, looking to release a fix in either a future Android 13 patch or another minor update. In the meantime, you can try the above steps to see if the problem gets fixed for you. We’ve asked Google for comment, and we’ll update this post if we hear back.
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