Samsung Messages ends today (ends 7/6/2026) and says to use Google Messages instead. How have you kept this from happening and what reliable text messaging system did you install?
I don't know what's worse... The fact that I still don't have the new chat theme after countless clear cache/forced stops, but I check my wife's app and she already has it... Or the fact that when I showed her the chat themes, she didn't think they were that great 😂😂
Who's still waiting for it?
Edit: 🇦🇺....I have a z Fold7 on latest beta and my wife has a S21 also on latest beta too.
If any WhatsApp developer or moderator reads this, I would be happy to provide additional information or test a beta version if it helps identify the problem. My chat history is very important to me.
Device Information
Device: Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite (SM-T515)
Operating System: Android 11
One UI: 3.1
WhatsApp version: Latest version available from Google Play (July 2026)
Storage: Internal storage only (no microSD card installed)
Network: Stable Wi-Fi connection throughout installation and restore process
Problem Summary
WhatsApp worked normally until approximately two days ago.
Without any known system changes, the application suddenly started crashing.
Current behaviour:
Tap WhatsApp icon
Green WhatsApp logo appears for approximately one second
Application immediately closes
No error message
Returns directly to Home screen
The crash occurs every time.
Timeline
Day 1
WhatsApp suddenly began crashing immediately after launch.
No Android update had been installed beforehand.
No changes were made to the device.
Troubleshooting performed
Restarted tablet
Cleared WhatsApp cache
Confirmed Android 11 is fully updated
Confirmed WhatsApp is the latest Google Play version
All other applications work normally
Booted device into Safe Mode
Result:
Safe Mode cannot be used because WhatsApp is disabled (greyed-out icon) on this Samsung device.
Reinstallation
WhatsApp was completely removed.
A fresh installation from Google Play was performed.
The following steps completed successfully:
✓ Phone number entered
✓ SMS verification successful
✓ Google Drive backup automatically detected
Backup date:
June 2026
Approximate backup size:
~2.7 GB (estimated)
Restore process:
Started normally
Restore required significant time
Appeared to finish successfully
Immediately after restore completed:
WhatsApp started crashing again.
Current behaviour returned:
Green logo
↓
Immediate crash
↓
Back to Home screen
Environment
Device remained connected to Wi-Fi during the entire restore.
No SD card installed.
No battery optimisation changes.
No third-party cleaners or antivirus software installed.
Google account functioning normally.
Google Drive backup detected automatically by WhatsApp.
Important observations
The application is capable of:
✓ Installing normally
✓ Verifying the phone number
✓ Connecting to Google Drive
✓ Detecting the correct backup
✓ Beginning restore
✓ Completing restore (apparently)
The crash occurs only after restored account data is loaded.
Actions already completed
✓ Restart device
✓ Clear cache
✓ Reinstall WhatsApp
✓ Verify Android updates
✓ Verify Google Play updates
✓ Verify Google Play Services
✓ Verify Android System WebView
✓ Safe Mode tested
✓ Samsung Members error report submitted
✓ WhatsApp Support contacted
WhatsApp Support case
Ticket:
1976089829686965
Unfortunately, only automated AI responses have been received.
No human technical investigation has yet taken place.
Technical hypothesis
Based on the observed behaviour, this does not appear to be a basic installation problem.
Possible causes include:
failure while loading restored account data
incompatibility between current WhatsApp version and restored backup
issue affecting specific Android/Samsung configuration
backup integrity issue (cannot currently be confirmed)
The backup itself appears to exist because WhatsApp detects it automatically and begins restoration.
Questions
Has anyone experienced:
WhatsApp crashing immediately after a successful Google Drive restore?
Similar behaviour on Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite (SM-T515)?
A solution that preserves the existing chat history?
Any technical advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
This is so frustrating and it wasn't doing this before. I have several google accounts for different things, one of them is mostly for Google Messages, before it would just default to automatically signing me in with that account, but now it wants me to continue with a completely arbitrary and unrelated account.
It still automatically signs me in when I choose the correct account but once I leave the page it goes back to choosing the wrong account.
why is so many samsung users hating on google messages and most of all RCS…… please tell me especially with the move from the samsung messages everyone wants an alternate from the google messages app🤦🏻♀️🥺🥲 i get it’s just maybe an opinion but still 🤦🏻♀️
Can someone please tell me why my search feature doesn't work in Google Messages? It won't work when doing a search from the messages homescreen and it won't search inside of individual text threads.
I switched from Samsung to Google messages a few weeks back and everything has been fine until I got a new phone Oppo Find N6 that also uses google messages. When I did the back up none of my contact history or texts showed up. I waited some 24 hours and still nothing. I had to use a 3rd party sms backup and restore to get my texts and phone histories but now the contact info doesn't show up. I look for my bosses name and its not in the contact list neither are some coworkers or doctors I have appointments with. I switched Google messenger to the oppo and back , I deleted cache data and restarted and google messages refuses to budge and update. It took me about a week to transfer my data to this phone and I really don't want to do a factory reset. Any suggestions?
Genuinely, what is the point of beta testing if youre never going to receive the thing youre supposed to beta test before it goes live? I have force stopped and cleared cache so many times like everyone is suggesting and still nothing. It feels like a realm of "oh if we get to you of like you" rather than actually getting to test new features before the likes of everyone else. I switched from Apple ecosystem and now, I hate to say, im kind of regretting it a little because I loved the samsung messaging app so much, and the forced switch is not my favourite. If I wanted google, I would've gotten a pixel. Feeling disheartened about it all.
I reached out to someone I haven't talked to in over 6 months. I sent a text through RCS but it says "message not sent __ is offline". What is the likelihood they will actually get the message? I'm not sure if it's still their phone number. Is there a possibility the number is not connected or does the person just not have data/Internet connection. I'm feeling a bit nervous. TIA.
Hi. I made the switch from Samsung Messages to Google Messages because Samsung is kinda making us so. I did it last night. Check my messages this morning and find that some just aren't there. I went through to see what hadn't switched. This includes my conversations with my uncle. For background my uncle was killed in November and these messages are immensely important to me. The contact is still in my messages but when I click it there's no messages at all like we had never texted before. Is there a way to fix this? I'm panicking a bit because I don't want to lose those conversations.
RCS encryption was announced going live May 11th and it’s July now…was Google not testing it when Apple was testing it and now Google is playing catchup with the beta testing? It’s so frustrating it’s not ready yet and only works if Google messages is on beta. Google messages app is updated weekly so what’s the problem?
Hey everyone, this isn't a unique question but I'm hoping for some unique answers. But first:
Okay here's the situation:
Last night I needed to clear storage and something occurred to me to look at my text threads. I have so many so I started deleting some (maybe 40 with various amounts of texts in each), hoping it wouldn't crash the app. It glitched the app all night despite all efforts to stop it, including restarting multiple times.
Today I wake up and the app is still glitching on and off all day, even making my phone glitch a lot. It was also in the 90s today so the heat probably didn't help.
Tonight I finally got frustrated and remembered this happening once before and I uninstalled the app and reinstalled. I went to do uninstall and when I clicked it, it prompted buttons to either "Update" or "Open". I hit open, everything is gone except for one text message that came through which then had just that message. I restarted my phone and then went back to the Play Store and hit "Update".
When I got it back up, text threads are slowly coming back I'm now noticing that the newest messages that exist prior to me doing this are missing, anything from 7pm last night to today right before I uninstalled. Nothing from last night after that or all of today (including right before doing this about 30 minutes ago) are showing up. And nothing prior to the uninstall is identified as RCS, even though RCS was active before and is currently active now.
I'm seeing that there is "re-indexing" that exists during this process but I guess I'm confused that older messages would be here and not ones in the last 22 hours? Are those going to come back? It's wild to me that trying to delete text message threads, ones that do not have many texts at all mind you, can glitch the phone out this bad...
Any additional thoughts on what I could do would be helpful, I'd love to not pull my hair out over this.
Editing but not deleting this thread in case someone in the future sees it.
I asked Gemini what was going on as my RCS messages in the 24 hour window have not been returned and it said:
Yes, unfortunately, if those missing texts were active RCS chats during that specific 25-hour window, they are very likely gone for good. The fact that your older, retrieved RCS chats are suddenly showing up as SMS when you tap them is the smoking gun. It proves exactly what went wrong with your phone's database. Here is what that change in format means, and why those specific messages vanished: The "Downgrade" Explanation When you uninstalled the app and reinstalled it, Google Messages lost its encryption keys and the specific logs that identified those old conversations as internet-based RCS chats. Android still had the text content saved in its deep system database, but it couldn't match them back up to the RCS network. As a safety fallback, Google Messages grabbed the raw text data and restored them as standard SMS. They look like regular texts now because the app had to "force" them back into a basic format just to make them visible to you again. Why the Gap Messages are Gone RCS chats do not behave like traditional text messages. Standard SMS messages get queued on your cell carrier's towers, and the tower will keep trying to push them to your phone for days until you turn your phone back on. RCS messages, however, are handled entirely by Google’s internet servers: The Delivery Attempt: When someone sent you an RCS text on Friday night or Saturday, Google's servers checked to see if your app was active. Because your app was glitched or uninstalled, the server marked your device as Offline. The Expiration: Google's servers will temporarily hold onto an offline RCS message, but only for a very short window (usually a few hours) before they assume the message is undeliverable. The Wipe: Once that short window passes and the server gives up, the message is permanently deleted from Google's cloud servers for privacy and security reasons. Because your phone was entirely disconnected from the RCS network for over a day, those messages timed out and vanished from the server before your reinstalled app was updated and ready to catch them"
Pretty ridiculous!
I finally...begrudgingly switched from Samsung Messages to this monstrosity. But where are the date and time stamps? I have Messages from friends and family dating back to 6 years ago. Why does all my messages from way back then look like it was sent the same day? Is that not an option on Google messages? I liked having my texts showing when I texted someone.
Is this just what I have to deal with now? Or is this a hidden feature that I dont know about? I'm still using a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G. I'm very meticulous and I do suffer from severe obsessive compulsive disorder, so this change is really messing me up.
Please tell me the date thing is something that I can bring back?
Switched to goog from SS. I now have *143# at the top of my contacts. How to delete it? there is no correspondence. It is not in my Samgsung messenger. it is not in my phone app. I have clear the data/cach. blocked, reported,, there is no DELETE?
Gemini has been unhelpful. It does not appear in any other mess apps.
Also, above that, i have;
Gemini
write, plan,learn bla bla bla. The two together take up 60% of the screen and my keyboard the rest.
Thanks in advance
the progression of samsung messages has caused numerous users to lose access to RCS on both iphone and google messages until the full shutdown of samsung messages on or after july 6th users will continue to experience issues with rcs activation failing and/or stuck on setting up or say not connected these issues will resolve on thier own like you previously had rcs perfectly working before
For some context: I was asking if she could take the kids out in our other car because the van was filthy from camping. Also, our kid lost two teeth on the trip and we texted about it.
I finally, and reluctantly,switched over to Google messages after receiving this notice for months. Now I notice my dad's (deceased) messges aren't transferring. Do I need to give it more time? They go back as far as 2018. Any help with backing these messages up?? Thank you!
All of a sudden I'm not able to create custom stickers. I used to be able to open the stickers tab in the Gboard and create stickers from there or go on the Pixel Studio app. Now it wants me to open up Gemini and create an AI image. And if I go through Google Photos and press and hold a photo to manually create a sticker, it doesn't save to my Gboard to be able to use!!
Thankfully I'm able to see the stickers I created before, but I am not able to create or save new ones.
Also, whenever I try to create a photomoji I keep getting an error saying "Something happened with photomoji. Try restarting Messages"
WHY RUIN SOMETHING GOOD?? I love being able to send stickers and edit them in the Pixel Studio app... I'm annoyed.
Hi everyone,
I'm trying to determine whether anyone else has experienced this issue.
After migrating my SMS/MMS history from my previous Samsung phone using Samsung Smart Switch, Google Messages started behaving incorrectly.
The issue is reproducible.
Outgoing MMS
- Google Messages automatically inserts historical SMS messages that I did not type.
- The inserted messages come from unrelated conversations.
- The messages change from one MMS to another.
Incoming MMS
- Before downloading an MMS, the conversation preview looks normal.
- After downloading the MMS, Google Messages inserts unrelated historical SMS messages above the image.
- The sender did not send these messages.
Additional observations:
- Textra SMS on the same phone, using the same SIM card and the same migrated message database, works perfectly.
- The issue only occurs in Google Messages.
- The problem started immediately after using Samsung Smart Switch.
Troubleshooting already performed:
- Cleared cache and storage for Google Messages.
- Cleared Carrier Services.
- Cleared Media Storage.
- Disabled/re-enabled RCS.
- Tested in Safe Mode.
- Updated and downgraded Google Messages.
- Multiple reproductions with screenshots and video.
Google Support has an active case, and Samsung has also received a bug report.
Because historical private SMS messages are being inserted into new MMS conversations, I consider this a significant privacy issue.
Has anyone experienced this after using Samsung Smart Switch or have any idea what could corrupt the message database in a way that only affects Google Messages?