How to Fix Slow Messaging on Your Pixel
Messaging should be instant: you send a message and the recipient reads it in seconds. They send you a reply, you know what happened in a few moments. But if your messages are sent and received as if on horseback, things start to get annoying. This is something that has been troubling some Pixel users lately, as MMS messages with attachments and even group chats are delivered to where they should be forever .
This problem does not appear to be new. This first came to my attention from this Reddit thread from Thursday, May 12, but there’s also this four-month-old thread that also laments slow investment using the Pixel 6 Pro in Canada . Users of both streams expressed dissatisfaction with the slow messaging on their pixels, ranging from 15 minutes to several hours. One user even complained that his Galaxy S21 on T-Mobile was experiencing the same issue, so while most of the cases seem to be pixel-related, the issue may be outside of Google phones.
While it’s never fun to run into software problems like this, especially when Google doesn’t come up with a clear fix, there are some workarounds you can try to speed up attachments and group chats.
Clear the cache of the messaging app
The first thing you should try to do is clear the message cache. There may be too much messaging data stored on your phone, preventing attachments from receiving properly. To do this, force close the messaging app, go to Settings > Apps , select the specific messaging app, then Storage & Cache . Try clearing the cache first by clicking “Clear Cache”. If that doesn’t work, you can try Clear Storage. (This option won’t delete your messages, but it will restart the app, so you’ll need to sign in again if necessary.)
Switch between 5G and LTE to keep messages moving
If clearing the cache and data doesn’t solve your problem, you can try switching between 5G and 4G to receive and send messages. This technique was effective, but definitely not convenient. To swap places, go to Settings > Network & Internet > SIM cards > Preferred network type and tap LTE. When your messages are sent, switch back to 5G (until the problem reappears, of course).
Temporarily replace the default messaging app in Pixel.
If things are still not going well, try changing your default messaging app, at least for a short time. Like the last step, this one can be a pain in the ass, but it might be worth a try. You can change the default messaging app by going to Settings > Apps > Default Apps > SMS App . Now select the app you want to switch to.
Reset your Pixel to factory settings
You can try replacing the SIM, but none of the commenters who tried this method reported success, so it might not be worth your time and effort. If all else fails, your best bet is to reset your phone to factory settings. We’ve talked about why a reset might be good for your technology , and it can fix any issue that’s causing these messaging delays.
You can always try a traditional reset by going to Settings > System > Reset options > Erase all data (factory reset) . But if you really want to make sure your Pixel is getting the latest version of Android to work with, you can follow user FRDFRDFRH’s advice and install a factory image on your Pixel. Going down this path is much more difficult than a simple factory reset, so if you decide to do so, be sure to read Google’s instructions carefully . However, this may be the step that will solve your problem. At least that was the case for FRDFRDFRH.