After updating Android 13, some Google Fi users have trouble getting RCS to connect on their Pixel phones. Despite this, it doesn’t seem like this is a common problem.
Update 8/18: According to Google, the issue only affects a “small number of Fi members.” The business is developing a fix.
We are actively trying to fix the RCS issue that is affecting a small number of Fi subscribers.
– Google representative
initial 8/17 A few reports of RCS not functioning on mobile data have surfaced since the release of Android 13 on Monday. For those impacted, Rich Communication Services continues to operate correctly when using Wi-Fi, but upon switching to cellular, Messages just displays “Connecting…” in Settings > Chat features. The green “Connected” status reappears when you reconnect to Wi-Fi, and everything resumes working.
On two Google Fi Pixel 6a devices running the stable version of Android 13, we don’t notice this RCS problem. Normal transitions from Wi-Fi to mobile data take place. We checked the Verizon Pixel 6 Pro and T-Mobile Pixel 6 Pro this afternoon, and both work just fine.
Some people have reported a bug because they’ve had this problem since the Android 13 Beta. In May, a Google employee posted on the Android Issue Tracker that this was a provisioning error and advised taking the following actions:
activate the aircraft mode
Clear the storage for Carrier Services and Messages by going to Settings > Storage (this does not delete message history)
Disable the aeroplane mode.
Retry by opening Messages.
This is Google’s most recent statement on the subject as of mid-June:
I appreciate you bringing this up. Our product and engineering teams have been informed of this, and we will update this article when further details become available.
This week’s Google Fi support ticketers did not receive suggestions on how to fix the problem.
