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Samsung Galaxy users in the US complain of text message issues

Hundreds of users have taken to social media and Reddit to complain of “missing” messages.
Hundreds of users have taken to social media and Reddit to complain of “missing” messages. Hundreds of users have taken to social media and Reddit to complain of “missing” messages.

Samsung Galaxy S8 users in the US have been left frustrated by an issue that sees some text messages fail to arrive.

According to a string of posts on social media and Reddit, customers on all four major phone networks in the US as well as some users in Europe and Australia have been experiencing intermittent problems receiving text messages on their device.

The vast majority of those affected are Galaxy S8 users, who say they have become aware of some messages sent to them in both the Android Messages and Samsung Messages apps not being delivered.

New Samsung Galaxy S8
New Samsung Galaxy S8
(Martyn Landi/PA)

One of the original Reddit posts on the subject said: “I’m on the unlocked S8+ and recently have not been receiving all of my text messages.

“I receive some and have some that do not come through even though they show as sent from the senders. For instance, I will receive some texts my wife sent me, but not others.”

Since then hundreds more users have reported the same issue, but Samsung has not yet confirmed the problem or offered a solution.

Some users have claimed the problem may be connected to the Rich Communications Services (RCS) messaging format.

The format is designed to be more diverse than traditional SMS and MMS messages, enabling users to share higher quality picture messages as well as their location, or make video calls through their message app.

Samsung Galaxy S6 phones unveiled
Samsung Galaxy S6 phones unveiled
(Laura Lean/PA)

Support for RCS messaging is not yet universal across all messaging apps and networks, and some users affected by this issue have reported that turning off an Advanced Messages feature on their Samsung device appears to have halted the problem.

“Since I’ve turned that off before switching to Android Messages, I have not had a missed text,” one user wrote on Reddit.

However for the moment, this method remains unconfirmed as a fix.

The number of text messages sent is in decline, thanks to the rise of services such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. However in the UK alone last year, more than 96 billion text messages were sent, according to Ofcom.