5mo ago

Are anyone else's texts getting delayed after the RCS switch?

My (non-tech savvy) friend and I have been having a weird issue where random texts show up like 2 days later. My phone is up-to-date and new and his might never have installed a system update for all I know. (I don’t let him connect to my main WiFi network for a reason.)

I don’t seem to be having this issue with anyone else. I’m on iOS and he’s on Android but a relatively modern Samsung phone. Should I sit him down and update his phone or something or is this a known issue?

20 comments

Haven't used RCS since Google intentionally caused it to silently fail on rooted devices
- can be fixed with play integrity spoofing but not a true fix
  
  It can be, but you can't tell it's broken until you try to send an RCS reply. Otherwise, it appears to be working.
  Last night I noticed they it broke again, so I just said hell with it and disabled Google Messages and went back to Fossify. I'm tired of re-generating PIF files. Screw RCS. Google has inserted themselves into what should be a carrier service, and they're gatekeeping it to only Google-blessed configurations.
  
  It can be, but text messaging is way too important a service for me to deal with the possibility of it randomly and silently failing.

Apple is doing insane stuff with iMessage making SMS useless with Android. It is intentional manipulation. I've only seen it on some Apple kernels with the latest iPhone. My old man's phone absolutely will not send or receive an SMS unless I message is manually turned off and then it won't get iMessages. Apple has always been a shitty company, but this is next level insane. Just get and use the Signal app and ditch all the proprietary garbage and manipulative bs IMO.
- SMS, iMessage and now RCS have been working well for me and I've been (primarily) using iPhones for the past 8 years now.
  The Messages app shows what type of message (iMessage/SMS/RCS) you're about to send in the text field and displays which (sent or received) messages are what as well.
  One thing I could see going wrong is that a given phone number is registered with iMessage and it hasn't been disabled after switching to an Android phone for example.
  Another (imo more likely) thing is that if it's using RCS, some carriers don't seem to work too well with it as of now. iOS seems to have implemented the base standard, while Google added proprietary extensions to said "standard" in Android, like end-to-end encryption. I never had issues sending or receiving RCS messages from/to Android devices, but there might be some hiccups for some people as RCS - even though it's called a "standard" - isn't really standardized.
  Not sure what's so insane from Apple's side about any of that.
  
  Not sure of the exact issue but the best answer from Apple so far is that the issue is kernel related. I've tried every setting I can find and no luck. It could also be related to actual dual sim use. It could be carrier related, but it is less likely Android as I use Graphene OS.
- Doesn't even have to be Apple, the wife and I are on different carriers and I saw the same shenanigans happening.
  Signal app or Threema or really any other independent messaging app (except whatsapp, strangely) solved the issue.
- You sound insane. I’ve been using RCS with no issues from my iPhone. Of course you need to update your iPhone to the new iOS version to get the new features, what did you expect?

So I’m not sure if this is the problem affecting your friend, however, RCS messaging uses additional ports rather than just the standard tcp/443 port to send traffic. This port is specifically tcp/5223. If your friend connects to a wireless network that has a firewall that doesn’t have the port open, then the RCS messages will fail to send/receive until they are either connected to their cellular network or a wireless network that doesn’t have that port blocked.
The catch is, if you try to send a message while you are on a network where the traffic isn’t allowed, the RCS message doesn’t attempt to resend right away after changing to a network where the traffic is allowed.
I have a firewall in my house that has very strict rules and I had to enable a firewall policy to allow this traffic to be able to send / receive RCS messages when I was connected to my home’s WiFi. My wife’s company WIFi network has that port blocked so she doesn’t connect to it anymore and RCS works just fine.
If you want to see if this is the case for your friend’s phone, have them use their mobile network while sending / receiving RCS messages to test.

I have a pixel with T-Mobile and my wife has iPhone with Verizon. RCS has worked great for us.
- Yeah I'm in a 5 person group chat, 2 Pixels, a OnePlus, and 2 iPhones. RCS works great for us so far

Working fine for me so far but a lot of people I know haven't upgraded their iPhones so our messaging hasn't switched to RCS. But the few conversations that have switched are working fine.
- iPhone users on T-Mobile need to authorize RCS at T-Mobile level.

I noticed it a while back on my previous phone before it was fully rolled out everywhere and people just said I was imagining it. Half the time, I have to just turn RCS off to get my messages to actually send or to receive.

Yes. I, my wife, and several friends have had intermittent problems with long-delays in message delivery. In some of those cases, neither of the phones involved moved, which rules out most of the common explanations. I've considered disabling RCS entirely, but a recent move to Signal has made this less of an issue.

What I've noticed on two Samsung phones, my dad's and my wife's aunt's, is that the Samsung messaging app silently fails and some messages don't get sent or received. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the OS of the user on the other end, but in my dad's case he wasn't getting messages from my mom who has an iPhone. Switching them to the Google Messages app solved the problem.

I tried it once a year ago, message was delayed. Immediately switched to another App (QKSMS).

RCS? That'll be the protocol that's handled by Google, which meant for me that it had to go. Stick with SMS/MMS and use Signal for text communication over the internet. Whilst you're at it, replace all the Google apps with the Fossify alternatives. Fuck Google and fuck Apple.

20 comments