RCS in Google Messages hasn’t worked for weeks in some regions

Rich Communication Services (RCS) is supposed to be the future of texting on Android, and even Apple has agreed to support the modern replacement for SMS. However, while RCS is gaining ground in the US and Europe, reports suggest it’s abruptly stopped working in Google Messages in several other regions since early August.

On Reddit, multiple people say that RCS in Google Messages has gone dark across Kenya, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and parts of East Africa. Reports suggest phones that previously showed “chat features” now display a “carrier not supported” message. Some commenters speculated that Google may have removed certain carriers from its infrastructure, while others accused operators of blocking the service outright.

The same complaints have spilled over into Google’s official support forum. One post from Bangladesh claims RCS has been completely unavailable since mid-August, regardless of carrier. Another, from Pakistan, describes the same problem after a Google Messages update. In both cases, Google’s product experts replied that carriers must take action to restore service, implying that Google isn’t stepping in to fix things.

While we have no official announcements about this, one possible explanation is that Google may have pulled back its Jibe service, which is the system it runs to provide RCS where carriers don’t. If that’s the case, carriers would need to support RCS themselves. In markets where SMS is still a paid product, operators might prefer to keep those revenues flowing rather than replace them with free RCS chats. Also, in countries where WhatsApp dominates messaging, there may be little incentive for carriers to support RCS financially.

Whatever the reason, user frustration is entirely understandable. Have you been affected? Let us know in the comments, and feel free to tell us which region you’ve lost the feature in.