Google as a general rule has done a good job of getting fixes out to their devices in a timely manner. This time however, they failed.
A small subset of Google Pixel owners have been experiencing not receiving SMS messages after upgrading to Android Oreo on their Pixel or Pixel XL. The problem seems somewhat isolated to Verizon customers but users on other carriers have been impacted too. The bug first popped up a couple of weeks ago and there is a long thread about the issue in the Google Product Forums. It appears that it took a while for Google to pinpoint exactly what the issue was but now are stating they have gotten to the bottom of it.
We want to let you all know that we have been able to identify and implement a fix for this issue. Thank you to those that sent over bug reports and for including detailed information here on this thread.
There was an issue introduced in the release of Android Oreo that affects text message (SMS) delivery for a subset of Pixel (not Pixel 2) users.This issue was only seen on a small number of carriers. Unfortunately this has resulted in devices getting into a state where they do not receive messages.
The problem is that users who are impacted by this issue will have to wait until the November Android Security Update to get the fix. That’s right, you get to live with it for at least another 2 weeks.
If history is any indicator, the November updates for the Google Pixel lineup will be released the first Monday of the month. That is November 6th, 16 days from the time of this post. That, in my view, is unacceptable. Making users wait half of a month for an update to an important service on a phone is not a shining example of customer service.
My only hope is that the update will actually roll out sooner while still carrying the November date – but I’m not overly optimistic.
