Google Messages RCS issues have repeatedly shown up in two well-documented shapes: a "Setting up" screen that never finishes verifying a phone number, or a "carrier not supported" label that replaces RCS chat features outright.
Either can leave conversations using SMS or MMS instead when text fallback is enabled. They point to different troubleshooting paths, and treating them as the same problem can waste time that could go toward the right one.
Google acknowledged the verification failure in April 2025 and said a fix was rolling out in the following week's update, according to Android Authority.
Months later, users across Kenya, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and other countries reported RCS disappearing entirely, with phones that once displayed "chat features" switching to "carrier not supported" instead in a separate Android Authority report.
Google Messages has become a primary home for RCS on Android flagships, which is part of why either failure draws attention quickly.
A device reset won't resolve RCS that a carrier has disabled. A verification freeze, meanwhile, calls for Google's activation troubleshooting rather than assuming a regional outage. The rest of this piece treats them as what the reporting shows: separate symptoms with different paths forward.
Stuck on 'Setting up': the verification bug behind many Google Messages RCS issues
The "Setting up" freeze is the better-documented of the two. Android Authority found the failure hit the phone-number verification stage specifically, and it wasn't limited to new devices.
RCS could break on phones that had worked fine for months, and the outlet described the bug as recurring every few months rather than showing up once and staying fixed.
Complaints piled up on the Google Messages subreddit around the same time. Users described RCS working normally until it abruptly stopped, with the device stuck trying to register and the status frozen on "Setting up" with no end in sight.
Google told the outlet at the time that it was aware of the issue affecting a set of users and had a fix rolling out the following week.
During that outbreak, some affected users reported success after clearing the cache and data for Google Messages and, where it exists as a separate system app, Carrier Services.
When that didn't work, others uninstalled Google Messages and sideloaded a December 2024 version, activated RCS on that older build, then updated again through the Play Store.
Those were user-reported workarounds tied to that particular bug, not steps Google confirmed, and nothing in the reporting says they'd resolve a verification freeze happening today. Installing an older app version also carries risks that staying on the current Play Store build avoids.
The official reset ladder for RCS chat troubleshooting in Google Messages
Google's current help pages distinguish between general activation trouble, phone-number verification trouble, and RCS disabled by a carrier.
For RCS that won't sync or when changing devices, Google's RCS deactivation page says to open Messages, tap the profile avatar, go to Settings, then RCS chats, turn the feature off, and turn it back on. Switching devices may require doing that on the previous phone first.
Anyone switching devices without access to the old phone has to take a different route. That means verifying a phone number with a six-digit code sent by text, which remotely deactivates RCS before it can be reactivated elsewhere.
Google notes that SMS charges may apply. Deactivating RCS also starts a clock: if it isn't turned back on within 30 days, the user is removed from their RCS group chats.
For an activation problem that persists, Google's current troubleshooting guidance also says to check that Google Messages is the default SMS app, confirm the phone can receive SMS, update Google Messages and Google Play services, and inspect the RCS status.
If that status says RCS has been disabled by the carrier, Google's instruction is to contact the carrier and tap Retry after the carrier resolves the issue.
'Carrier not supported': when Google Messages RCS problems point to the carrier
"Carrier not supported" is a different failure from a phone number stuck at verification. Android Authority reported in September 2025 that RCS had been down for weeks across several regions.
Users in Kenya, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and other countries said phones that previously showed "chat features" had switched to a carrier-not-supported message instead.
One post cited from Bangladesh described RCS as completely unavailable since mid-August regardless of carrier. Another, from Pakistan, traced the same failure to a Google Messages update.
The complaints spread from Reddit into Google's own support forum. Product experts responding to those threads told affected users that carriers needed to act to restore service.
Commenters split on the explanation: some blamed Google for quietly removing certain carriers from its backend, while others accused local carriers of blocking the service outright.
Android Authority raised, without confirming, the possibility that this reflected Google scaling back Jibe, the infrastructure it runs to provide RCS where carriers don't support it directly.
If that was the explanation in those markets, restoring service would depend on carriers providing support themselves. The outlet also pointed to incentive: in markets where SMS is still a paid product, or where WhatsApp dominates messaging, carriers may have little financial reason to pick up RCS support.
None of that reporting suggests that clearing Google Messages data alone would fix a genuine carrier-side loss of support. Multiple reports of "carrier not supported" from users in the same region point toward a broader problem, though they don't rule out every device-level cause.
Why Google Messages can fall back to SMS and MMS
Both failures can land in the same place for the user: a conversation that used to run over RCS gets sent as SMS or MMS instead if text fallback is enabled.
Google's RCS FAQ lets users turn "Automatically resend as text (SMS/MMS)" on or off, so that fallback isn't automatic in every configuration.
SMS and MMS also use the carrier messaging service rather than the RCS data connection, and charges can depend on the user's carrier plan.
RCS was pitched as the eventual replacement for SMS, and Apple now supports RCS on iPhones where the carrier and region support it. The system still depends on carrier and provider infrastructure being available at both ends.
When that chain breaks, users notice the loss of RCS features first, long before they can tell which side of the handoff failed.
Where the reporting stands now
The two 2025 failure patterns remain useful diagnostic examples, but they no longer represent the full RCS troubleshooting picture.
In August 2026, some Galaxy owners began reporting a separate RCS connection problem after moving to a new phone, often after using Samsung Smart Switch. Affected users have seen error code 3100, and Google says it is working with carrier partners on the issue, according to Android Authority.
Google has also acknowledged the older verification failure and maintains official troubleshooting for RCS that won't activate or sync. Regional carrier-not-supported reports, meanwhile, prompted guidance directing affected users toward their carriers.
That makes the status shown inside Google Messages more useful than assuming every RCS outage has the same cause. "Connecting" or "Trouble connecting" points toward verification; a carrier-disabled message points toward the carrier; and newer error codes may represent a separate issue entirely.
Figuring out which one is actually happening is most of the battle, and it's the step worth taking before clearing data, reinstalling apps, or changing carrier settings.
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