Contents
- The Short Answer: What's Fixed and What Isn't
- What You Need Before You Check Your Own Phone
- iOS 27 Quietly Fixed Three Long-Standing iMessage Bugs
- RCS Reactions and Inline Replies Finally Work
- What's Still Broken: RCS "Not Delivered" and a Missing Toggle
- The Separate Problem: Google Messages Sending Old Texts to the Wrong Person
- The Full Checklist: Fixed, Rolling Out, or Still Unconfirmed
- Frequently Asked Questions
What we checked ourselves
Everything below was verified by hand on 2026-09-13 (KST, exact hour/minute not confirmed — only the system date could be confirmed).
In the Messages entry of Apple’s official iOS 27 release notes, we directly confirmed by comparison that bug ID 177657977 (a sizing error affecting GIFs and pasted images) moved from 'Known Issues' at the beta stage (2026-07-16 snapshot) to 'Resolved Issues' at the RC stage (as of 2026-09-13). Over that same period, a total of 3 bugs were resolved in the Messages section (177453147, 177657977, 180859837), with 0 Known Issues remaining.
Method: 1) Fetched the current version of https://developer.apple.com/tutorials/data/documentation/ios-ipados-release-notes/ios-ipados-27-release-notes.md directly to obtain the original 'Messages' section text. 2) Queried the Wayback Machine CDX API (web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=…ios-ipados-27-release-notes.md) for a list of past snapshots, then used curl to download the beta-stage version captured at 2026-07-16 10:22 UTC (/tmp/ios27_beta_snapshot.md). 3) Directly compared the 'Messages' sections of the two documents using grep/diff. Readers can reproduce this identically by opening the same two URLs.
| Bug ID | Status on 2026-07-16 (beta) | Status on 2026-09-13 (RC) |
|---|---|---|
| 177453147 (stickers from unknown senders not displayed) | Resolved | Resolved |
| 177657977 (sizing error affecting GIFs and pasted images) | **Known Issue** (workaround provided) | **Resolved** |
| 180859837 (HDR screenshots corrupted) | Not listed | Resolved |
| 180040003 (blank title when using 'Add to Reminders' in Messages) | Not listed | **Known Issue (unresolved)** — filed under a different category, 'Reminders' |
Caveat: the beta snapshot is the only iOS 27 beta-stage capture remaining on the Wayback Machine (2026-07-16), and we were unable to confirm the status prior to that (e.g. beta 1 through beta 4 in June). Also, this document covers only bugs that Apple has publicly acknowledged, so it does not include every issue reported by users in the community.
A string search across the full text of the official release notes (roughly 1,000-1,100 lines) at both the 2026-07-16 beta snapshot and the 2026-09-13 RC stage found zero occurrences of the word 'RCS' at either point — in other words, Apple has never once acknowledged an RCS-related bug as a separate entry in the official iOS 27 changelog.
Method: ran `grep -n -i "RCS"` against the same original text files (the current RC .md and the beta 07-16 snapshot .md). The result was 0 matches in both files (the command produced no output).
grep -n -i "RCS" <RC release notes original text> → 0 matches grep -n -i "RCS" <2026-07-16 beta release notes original text> → 0 matches By contrast: a 9to5Google article from the same period (2026-06-22) and a discussions.apple.com community thread ("RCS Messages 'Not Delivered'", originally posted 2025-12-16, with the most recent comment on 2026-04-26) explicitly discuss RCS delivery failures and malfunctions, showing a gap in wording between press/user reports and Apple’s official changelog.
Caveat: this does not mean 'there are no actual RCS bugs' — it only shows that Apple has not classified or published RCS bugs under this name in its official documentation. RCS-related improvements (such as reply quoting or photo reactions) may appear somewhere in the New Features section under different wording, but this check was limited to a search for the string 'RCS'.
The Short Answer: What’s Fixed and What Isn’t
If you’ve had to manually retry a failed iMessage, or watched a stuck photo hold up your whole conversation, iOS 27 finally fixes it — that’s one of three Messages bugs Apple quietly patched, alongside two RCS annoyances tied to Android messaging. Separately, and unrelated to Apple’s update, Google Messages is rolling out its own fix for a bug that resends old texts to the wrong contact. Some RCS problems are still unresolved, and it’s not confirmed whether iOS 27 touches them at all.
Here’s the quick version before the detail:
- Fixed in iOS 27 — failed messages no longer need a manual retry
- Fixed in iOS 27 — a stalled photo no longer delays every message behind it
- Fixed in iOS 27 — iPhone-to-Mac sync mismatches, addressed
- Fixed in iOS 27 beta 2 — RCS reactions show as emoji instead of text
- Fixed in iOS 27 beta 2 — inline replies now work over RCS
- Rolling out, not confirmed complete — Google Messages’ old-texts bug
- Unconfirmed — RCS messages marked “Not Delivered” despite arriving fine
- Unconfirmed — no way to turn off RCS typing indicators or read receipts
Apple and Google are fixing unrelated bugs on unrelated timelines, and nobody’s put both checklists side by side until now. My read: the Google Messages fix will take longer to reach everyone than “rolling out” makes it sound.
What You Need Before You Check Your Own Phone
You don’t need much. You need to know your iOS version and, if you’re on Android, whether Google Messages has an update pending.
Before you start: – On iPhone: Settings → General → About → check the software version – On Android: Google Play Store → search Google Messages → look for an “Update” button – Neither company has published exact version numbers tied to these fixes, so you’re checking for “iOS 27” broadly, not a specific build
That last point matters. The Google Messages fix in particular has no confirmed version number attached to it in either 9to5Google’s or Droid-Life’s coverage. You’re working from “keep the app updated,” not a specific release tag.
iOS 27 Quietly Fixed Three Long-Standing iMessage Bugs
Apple confirmed these fixes on August 24, 2026, in reporting from 9to5Mac’s Chance Miller. None of the three got a keynote mention. All three had been annoying people for at least one full iOS cycle.
Bug 1 — messages that failed to send stayed failed. On iOS 26 and earlier, if a message didn’t go through, you had to tap a retry button yourself. iOS 27 monitors the network connection in the background and resends automatically.
Bug 2 — one stuck photo held up everything behind it. Send a photo, watch the blue progress bar hang, and every message you typed after it would also sit there waiting. iOS 27 gives each message its own progress indicator, so one stalled send no longer blocks the queue.
Bug 3 — messages arrived out of order, or not at all, across devices. iPhone and Mac would occasionally disagree about what had been sent, dropping or delaying messages between them. Apple says iOS 27 improves sync stability across devices, though the company hasn’t published a technical explanation of what changed under the hood.
Three fixes, one announcement, zero fanfare. That’s fairly normal for maintenance work — it just means most people never hear these bugs existed in the first place, let alone got fixed.
RCS Reactions and Inline Replies Finally Work
This one predates the August fixes. Cult of Mac’s Anurag Chawake reported it on June 23, 2026, tied to iOS 27 beta 2 and built on the RCS 2.7 standard.
Two things changed:
- Reactions display correctly. Before this fix, an Android user sending a heart reaction to a photo showed up on the iPhone side as a plain text notification — something like “Loved an image” — instead of an actual heart emoji. iOS 27 beta 2 renders it as the emoji it’s supposed to be.
- Inline replies exist now. RCS conversations previously had no way to reply directly to a specific message. In a busy group chat with several threads running at once, that meant guessing who was responding to what. iOS 27 beta 2 adds the ability to reply inline, the same way iMessage and most other messaging apps already work.
Neither feature is dramatic on its own. Together they’re the kind of thing that makes cross-platform group chats slightly less confusing, which is arguably the more common real-world pain point than either bug fix in the previous section.
What’s Still Broken: RCS “Not Delivered” and a Missing Toggle
Here’s the part other roundups skip entirely: not every RCS complaint got resolved, and for at least one of them, it’s genuinely unclear whether iOS 27 changes anything.
“Not Delivered” shows up even when the message arrived. An Apple Community thread — accessed September 12, 2026, with reports referencing iOS 26.1 and 26.2 — describes RCS messages marked “Not Delivered” on the sender’s screen even though the recipient got them fine. In some cases a read receipt appeared and then flipped to that status about a minute later. Community responders in that thread guessed it was a carrier-side issue and suggested contacting the carrier directly; some users reported that a full device reset didn’t help either.
Whether iOS 27 fixes this specific bug is not confirmed. The thread’s reports are pinned to iOS 26.1 and 26.2, and there’s no mention of iOS 27 resolving it one way or the other.
No toggle to turn off RCS typing indicators or read receipts. Some users want RCS messaging enabled but without the typing-indicator and read-receipt behavior that comes bundled with it. There’s a support-forum thread titled “PLEASE add a way to turn off typing indicators for RCS,” but no verified response from Apple.
A smaller, less certain data point: some iOS 27 beta testers have reported RCS falling back to SMS, or getting stuck on “Waiting for Activation.” These are beta-stage reports, and it’s not confirmed whether they carry over into the finished release.
If you’re chasing the “Not Delivered” bug specifically, don’t expect a fix from iOS 27 to be the answer — the evidence just isn’t there yet.
The Separate Problem: Google Messages Sending Old Texts to the Wrong Person
This is not an Apple bug, and it’s not related to RCS. It’s Google Messages doing something it clearly shouldn’t: resending old texts to contacts who never should have seen them.
The symptom, per 9to5Google and Droid-Life reporting from September 7, 2026: Google Messages has been randomly resending old messages — texts originally sent to one contact — to a completely different contact. Reports had been building for several weeks before early September, and were still coming in as of the September 7 coverage.
One case from Droid-Life stands out. A user messaged a paving company about a job, and the message went out bundled with a year-old, profanity-laced text that had originally been meant for their spouse. That’s the kind of bug that turns an app glitch into an actual privacy problem.
Google’s presumed explanation, per Droid-Life’s reporting, points to something in the phone-to-phone data transfer process — the setup flow people use when switching to a new device. That’s described as a likely cause, not a confirmed root cause.
Google’s own statement, relayed through 9to5Google, says a fix is currently rolling out and should reach everyone over the next few weeks, and it’s recommending users keep Google Messages updated in the meantime. Droid-Life noted the update appearing in the beta channel around September 3–4, 2026. What’s not confirmed: whether that fix has reached the full stable release yet, and neither outlet has published the specific app version number tied to it.
Until you know your app is updated, the practical advice — echoed in Google’s own guidance — is to double-check message content before sending anything sensitive, and use the “delete for everyone” option if something gets sent to the wrong person.
The Full Checklist: Fixed, Rolling Out, or Still Unconfirmed
Put every item from above side by side, and this is where things stand as of this writing.
| Bug | Platform | Status | Since / Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Failed messages need manual retry | iOS Messages | Fixed | iOS 27, reported Aug 24, 2026 |
| Stalled photo delays entire queue | iOS Messages | Fixed | iOS 27, reported Aug 24, 2026 |
| Cross-device sync mismatches | iOS Messages | Fixed | iOS 27, reported Aug 24, 2026 |
| RCS reactions show as text, not emoji | iOS + RCS | Fixed | iOS 27 beta 2, announced Jun 23, 2026 |
| No inline replies over RCS | iOS + RCS | Fixed (new feature) | iOS 27 beta 2, announced Jun 23, 2026 |
| Old texts resent to wrong contact | Google Messages | Rolling out, not confirmed complete | Beta channel as of Sep 3–4, 2026 |
| RCS marked “Not Delivered” despite arriving | iOS + RCS | Unconfirmed whether iOS 27 fixes it | Reported on iOS 26.1 / 26.2 |
| No RCS typing indicator/read receipt toggle | iOS + RCS | Unconfirmed, no official response found | Ongoing user requests |
That mix of statuses is more useful than a clean list of “all fixed” — it tells you where to stop troubleshooting and where you’re wasting your time on a bug nobody’s confirmed is solved yet.
If you’re still stuck after checking this list, a few things are worth trying in the meantime:
- For “Not Delivered” RCS messages, contact your carrier before assuming it’s an Apple-side problem — that’s what Apple Community responders suggested, though a device reset reportedly didn’t help everyone
- For the missing RCS toggle, there’s nothing to turn off yet — check back with a future iOS update
- For Google Messages, confirm the app is updated through the Play Store and avoid sending sensitive content until you’ve seen it behave normally a few times
Frequently Asked Questions
Does iOS 27 fix the RCS “Not Delivered” bug? It’s not confirmed. The reports describing this bug reference iOS 26.1 and 26.2, and there’s no mention in that Apple Community thread of iOS 27 resolving it.
Is the Google Messages old-texts bug fixed for everyone now? Not confirmed as complete. Google described the fix as rolling out, with beta-channel updates appearing around September 3–4, 2026, but there’s no confirmation it has reached every user on the stable release, and no published version number to check against.
Can I turn off RCS typing indicators or read receipts on iPhone? Not as far as anyone has confirmed. There are user requests for this option, but no verified official response from Apple describing a way to do it.
What’s still open: whether Apple addresses the “Not Delivered” bug in a future iOS 27 point release, and whether Google’s fix actually closes the gap for everyone or just slows the bug down. Both are worth checking back on in the next few weeks rather than assuming either is settled.
Image credits
- Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels
- Photo by Andrey Matveev on Pexels