Some Google Messages for Android users receiving distorted GIFs from iPhones

May 28, 2024

2 min read

In recent weeks, GIFs sent by iPhone users to Android devices running Google Messages have turned into distorted still images with missing dots/pixels throughout.

This issue — with reports continuing to come in — has been encountered on Pixel, Samsung, and other Android phones. All the GIFs have been sent over SMS/MMS by iPhone owners.

While more than a few Android users have reported this issue, not every iPhone-Android conversation is impacted. GIFs we sent in testing today appear normally in Google Messages. Meanwhile, one case described how they had this problem but other Android users in the same group chat received GIFs from iPhone owners without issue.

Credit: u/Diiiiirty, u/ForwardMotion6565

Given the wide range of devices and carriers, it’s unlikely to be an Android OS issue. It could be a problem with the Google Messages app, but we have yet to find Android-to-Android instances. As such, iOS is the most likely culprit. A compression or rendering bug might be at fault.

Reports about this distorted iPhone GIF issue increased in mid-May, though some Android users say it has been happening for a few weeks before that. One thing worth noting is how Apple released iOS 17.5 on May 13, with beta testing starting on April 2.

This issue comes ahead of Apple’s work to adopt RCS on the iPhone. We’re expecting it to launch later this year. The first beta of iOS 18 should arrive next month at WWDC 2024, but it’s unclear if RCS will be enabled on those first previews.