What is Carrier Services?

What is Carrier Services?

Carrier Services is a Google app that runs in the background to support RCS, the chat features in Google Messages such as typing indicators, read receipts, high-quality photos, group chats over data and end-to-end encryption. Google's Play listing describes it as providing services for RCS messaging in Messages and collecting diagnostic and crash data to keep those services working.

It has no icon and nothing to open. Pixel phones come with it preinstalled, and many other Android phones get it from the Play Store when you start using Google Messages. Its package name, com.google.android.ims, refers to IMS, the network technology that carriers use for modern calling and messaging.

The name confuses people because it sounds like something your carrier installed. It is Google's. To add to the confusion, some carrier components, such as Verizon's com.verizon.mips.services, are labeled Carrier Services on certain phones. Check the package name in App info if you are not sure which one you are looking at.

Can I disable it?

Yes, you can disable it, but if you use Google Messages you will lose RCS chat features, so treat it as an advanced change. On most phones Settings > Apps > Carrier Services offers Disable, or Uninstall when it came from the Play Store. Where the button is missing, ADB works:

adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.ims

What changes: Google Messages falls back to plain SMS and MMS for chats that used RCS. You lose read receipts, typing indicators, full-quality media, end-to-end encrypted chats and group chats over data. Ordinary texts, calls, voicemail and mobile data keep working.

If you use Samsung Messages, a carrier texting app, or another SMS app instead of Google Messages, Carrier Services has little to do on your phone and disabling it changes nothing you will notice.

Does it drain battery or data?

It uses a small amount of battery to keep your RCS connection registered so that chat messages arrive instantly, much like any messaging app that stays connected. That background work is why it appears in battery lists, usually with a share of a few percent or less.

Data use follows your chats: RCS messages, photos and videos travel over Wi-Fi or mobile data rather than the carrier's SMS channel. A large photo sent through RCS will be counted as data, and the same photo sent as MMS would not. The app also sends diagnostic and crash reports, which are small.

If Carrier Services sits near the top of your battery list, RCS registration is probably failing and retrying. The fixes in the last section usually stop that.

Why did it just update?

It updated because Google delivers Carrier Services through the Google Play Store and releases new versions often, usually alongside changes to Google Messages. Updates add RCS features, support for more carriers, encryption improvements and bug fixes.

Google's own help for end-to-end encryption tells users to update Carrier Services to the latest version if it came with the phone, which shows how closely the two apps move together. If you turn off automatic updates, update both apps together.

Which packages are behind it?

One package:

• com.google.android.ims is Carrier Services.

It works with Google Messages (com.google.android.apps.messaging), which is the app you actually see. The two depend on each other for RCS: Messages handles the conversation screen, and Carrier Services handles the connection.

If something goes wrong

When RCS chats are stuck on "Setting up", "Connecting" or "Trouble connecting", update both Carrier Services and Google Messages in the Play Store, then restart the phone. If that does not help, work through these steps; the first three come from Google's own checklist, and the fourth is a common extra step:

1. Make sure Google Messages is your default SMS app.
2. Check that mobile data or Wi-Fi is working, and turn airplane mode on and off.
3. In Messages, open Settings > RCS chats and use "Verify your number" if it is offered.
4. Clear Carrier Services' storage (Settings > Apps > Carrier Services > Storage > Clear storage), then open Messages and turn RCS chats off and on again.

If the RCS status in Messages says your carrier has disabled RCS chats, the problem is on the carrier's side, and only the carrier can fix it.

If you disabled Carrier Services and want RCS back, turn it on again:

adb shell pm enable com.google.android.ims
adb shell cmd package install-existing com.google.android.ims

Then open Google Messages, which will set up RCS again within a few minutes.