How to tell whether your Android messages are actually using RCS — and what to do when they’re not

If you use an Android phone, you probably count on Google Messages to handle your texting. You send high-resolution photos, watch typing indicators bounce in real time, and take it for granted that your texts are protected. But a silent shift hits millions of Android devices every day. Without any warning, your phone can drop RCS and fall back to decade-old SMS. Your messages still go through, but under the hood, your phone has quietly downgraded to basic texting.