WhatsApp with Google Fi text delivery delay

This may have nothing to do with Google Fi. My wife and I have the Google Fi plans on our phones and get our regular messaging app texts just fine. I got a data only sim and put it in my older Moto G5+ phone that I gave to my son so he can use WhatsApp to message us from the town pool or where ever else is needed.

The problem is that I sometimes don’t get his messages for 30 minutes after he sends it and visa versa. I know that WhatsApp doesn’t use SMS so its unrelated to the messenger app which works fine, but any ideas why Whatsapp messages take so long? They do get delivered quickly when he is on WiFi. Data Saver is not on and WhatsApp background data usage is enabled.

Thanks!

Was the old phone not using fi? My bet is something wrong with APN settings. Other internet usage is ok?

Ask project fi support! You can email them

If those settings are wrong, would it just delay the messages or make it not work at all? The messages do eventually get sent and received, it just takes much longer.

Don’t use Whatsapp, use Signal.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/08/facebook_plans_.html

Does that work in some different way though that will fixed my delayed messages? I only use WhatsApp with my son, otherwise I use the build in Messenger.

Whatsapp messages run over the internet, I have no clue what’s slowing down your whatsapp. Perhaps Zuck is incanting them whilst sacrificing a spring lamb to Beezelbub and bathing in the blood of the unborn.

I’m on Fi and I’ve got various businesses that have to send me paperwork everyday, and we do it through Whatsapp. There was a day when the messages weren’t coming through a couple of weeks ago sometime, and it was a complete mess. I looked it up, and Facebook and Whatsapp were having server issues that day. It was thankfully fixed the next day. I haven’t had issues since then.

But yeah, when you rely on Whatsapp for sending documents everyday, it really sucks when they go down.

Rob, I’m not having any issues with them recently.

I wonder if it is a network dependent problem for me, like if my son is on the Sprint network. I was thinking of installing SignalSpy to see what network he is on when he is having problems sending and receiving WhatsApp messages. Then he could also easily force it to another network.

This may be related. I saw that his phone had data roaming disabled. It is enabled on mine. I’m not sure if the way Fi works it needs to be enabled or not, but I enabled it since there aren’t any roaming charges.