Author Name / Publication Name
Summary
- Google is looking into a glitch that causes group chats to fragment into separate threads featuring the same participants.
- Users affected may find various instances of the same conversation, sometimes leading to a loss of chat history.
- There have also been reports of similar issues with individual chats, although Google has yet to confirm a link to the group chat problem.
Google Messages fans have faced a busy summer. Recently, the company recognized an RCS connectivity issue impacting certain users, and ongoing efforts with carrier partners are in place to resolve this. Now, yet another issue has arisen that disrupts existing conversations.
Google has acknowledged that it is probing a problem where group chats split into distinct threads. In a response to an affected user on social media, the company stated it is actively investigating the matter and encouraged users to provide feedback via the Messages app using the hashtag #splittingthreads to assist their engineers.
This issue seems to have persisted for several months. Users participating in Google’s support forums have reported existing group conversations unexpectedly creating new threads with identical participants but without retaining the earlier message history. This phenomenon can occur multiple times within a single chat, resulting in seven or more separate discussions involving the same individuals.
While this situation alone is frustrating, a related issue may prove even more troublesome.
Merely deleting a duplicate thread does not solve the issue, as the next incoming message can reintroduce the second thread. Some users have reported that the Messages for Web and Phone Link features manage to combine these seemingly separate conversations, whereas the Android application continues to treat them as independent threads.
Reports of this problem have emerged across different devices, including Pixel and Samsung phones, with some users experiencing the issue after upgrading through Samsung’s Smart Switch while others encountered it without switching devices. Additionally, some users noted that Messages alternate between RCS and SMS/MMS when conversations split, though this connection remains unverified.
At present, Google has specifically confirmed that group chats are splitting into separate threads, although they have not stated that the issues with individual chats are intrinsically linked to the same defect.
Considering the similarities in the outcomes of these problems, users of Google Messages might justifiably wonder if multiple underlying issues are causing their conversations to splinter.
Thank you for being part of our community. Please review our guidelines before posting.
