RESOLVED: **Summary:** Google Chat users are experiencing an issue where they receive notifications for new messages, but the actual messages fail to appear in their chat application unless the user refreshes their view. **Description:** We are experiencing an intermittent issue with Google Chat Friday, 2026-08-28 10:25 PDT. Our engineering team has investigated the issue and are currently working on mitigating the issue. We will provide more information by Friday, 2026-08-28 14:15 PDT with curr

Timeline

1. 04 Sep · 03:43 UTC 🟠 Resolved atom

   Incident began at 2026-08-28 17:50 and ended at 2026-08-28 20:34 (times are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)).
   
   ## Incident Report
   
   ## Summary
   
   On Friday, August 28, 2026, between 10:50 US/Pacific and 13:34 US/Pacific for a duration of 2 hours and 44 minutes, Google Chat users experienced delays in receiving real-time incoming messages within active conversation streams across web, desktop, and mobile applications. While users continued to receive notifications for new messages, the message contents did not automatically render in active conversation streams until the user manually refreshed the application or sent a reply message.
   
   To our valued Google Workspace customers, we are deeply sorry for the service interruption you experienced. We are taking immediate and decisive action to address the issue and strengthen our systems against future incidents.
   
   ## Root Cause
   
   The incident was triggered during a global database schema rollout. An incompatible database schema change caused database writes required for message delivery to start failing.
   
   Specifically, a mechanism for schema synchronization—designed to ensure high consistency between primary storage and live message delivery—encountered a rare race condition bug. This caused backend message dispatchers to attempt writes against an unready schema state, leading to write failures.
   
   Because live message delivery had an active dependency on these writes completing successfully before pushing events to user screens, the failure caused incoming messages to experience synchronization delays. Separate push notification services and core message storage operated independently and were unaffected, which is why users still received alerts for new messages while active conversation streams experienced delays.
   
   ## Remediation and Prevention
   
   The issue was detected through automated backend alerting on dispatch error rates, alongside corresponding customer reports. Google Engineering initiated parallel workstreams to re

2. 04 Sep · 03:43 UTC 🟠 Resolved atom

   Incident began at 2026-08-28 17:50 and ended at 2026-08-28 20:34 (times are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)).
   
   Incident Report
   Summary
   On Friday, August 28, 2026, between 10:50 US/Pacific and 13:34 US/Pacific for a duration of 2 hours and 44 minutes, Google Chat users experienced delays in receiving real-time incoming messages within active conversation streams across web, desktop, and mobile applications. While users continued to receive notifications for new messages, the message contents did not automatically render in active conversation streams until the user manually refreshed the application or sent a reply message.
   
   To our valued Google Workspace customers, we are deeply sorry for the service interruption you experienced. We are taking immediate and decisive action to address the issue and strengthen our systems against future incidents.
   
   Root Cause
   The incident was triggered during a global database schema rollout. An incompatible database schema change caused database writes required for message delivery to start failing.
   
   Specifically, a mechanism for schema synchronization—designed to ensure high consistency between primary storage and live message delivery—encountered a rare race condition bug. This caused backend message dispatchers to attempt writes against an unready schema state, leading to write failures.
   
   Because live message delivery had an active dependency on these writes completing successfully before pushing events to user screens, the failure caused incoming messages to experience synchronization delays. Separate push notification services and core message storage operated independently and were unaffected, which is why users still received alerts for new messages while active conversation streams experienced delays.
   
   Remediation and Prevention
   The issue was detected through automated backend alerting on dispatch error rates, alongside corresponding customer reports. Google Engineering initiated parallel workstreams to restore service.
   
   

3. 04 Sep · 03:43 UTC 🟠 Resolved atom

   Incident began at 2026-08-28 17:25 and ended at 2026-08-28 20:45 (times are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)).
   
   Incident Report
   Summary
   On Friday, August 28, 2026, between 10:50 US/Pacific and 13:34 US/Pacific for a duration of 2 hours and 44 minutes, Google Chat users experienced delays in receiving real-time incoming messages within active conversation streams across web, desktop, and mobile applications. While users continued to receive notifications for new messages, the message contents did not automatically render in active conversation streams until the user manually refreshed the application or sent a reply message.
   
   To our valued Google Workspace customers, we are deeply sorry for the service interruption you experienced. We are taking immediate and decisive action to address the issue and strengthen our systems against future incidents.
   
   Root Cause
   The incident was triggered during a global database schema rollout. An incompatible database schema change caused database writes required for message delivery to start failing.
   
   Specifically, a mechanism for schema synchronization—designed to ensure high consistency between primary storage and live message delivery—encountered a rare race condition bug. This caused backend message dispatchers to attempt writes against an unready schema state, leading to write failures.
   
   Because live message delivery had an active dependency on these writes completing successfully before pushing events to user screens, the failure caused incoming messages to experience synchronization delays. Separate push notification services and core message storage operated independently and were unaffected, which is why users still received alerts for new messages while active conversation streams experienced delays.
   
   Remediation and Prevention
   The issue was detected through automated backend alerting on dispatch error rates, alongside corresponding customer reports. Google Engineering initiated parallel workstreams to restore service.
   
   

4. 04 Sep · 03:43 UTC 🟠 Resolved atom

   Incident began at 2026-08-28 17:50 and ended at 2026-08-28 20:34 (times are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)).
   
   Summary
   
   Google Chat users experienced an issue where they received notifications for new messages, but the actual messages failed to appear in their chat application unless the user refreshed their view.
   
   Description
   
   The issue with Google Chat has been resolved for all affected users as of Friday, 2026-08-28 13:45 PDT.
   
   From preliminary analysis the issue was triggered due to a recent change which was rolled back to mitigate the impact.
   
   We thank you for your patience while we worked on resolving the issue.
   
   Customer Symptoms
   
   Users were experiencing an issue where they received notifications for new messages, but the actual messages failed to appear in their chat application unless the user refreshed their view.
   
   Workaround
   
   None as the issue is resolved.
   
   Affected products: Google Chat

5. 04 Sep · 03:43 UTC 🟠 Resolved atom

   Incident began at 2026-08-28 17:25 and ended at 2026-08-28 20:45 (times are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)).
   
   Summary
   
   Google Chat users experienced an issue where they received notifications for new messages, but the actual messages failed to appear in their chat application unless the user refreshed their view.
   
   Description
   
   The issue with Google Chat has been resolved for all affected users as of Friday, 2026-08-28 13:45 PDT.
   
   From preliminary analysis the issue was triggered due to a recent change which was rolled back to mitigate the impact.
   
   We thank you for your patience while we worked on resolving the issue.
   
   Customer Symptoms
   
   Users were experiencing an issue where they received notifications for new messages, but the actual messages failed to appear in their chat application unless the user refreshed their view.
   
   Workaround
   
   None as the issue is resolved.
   
   Affected products: Google Chat

6. 28 Aug · 20:55 UTC 🟠 Resolved atom

   Incident began at 2026-08-28 17:25 and ended at 2026-08-28 20:45 (times are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)).
   
   Summary
   
   Google Chat users experienced an issue where they received notifications for new messages, but the actual messages failed to appear in their chat application unless the user refreshed their view.
   
   Description
   
   The issue with Google Chat has been resolved for all affected users as of Friday, 2026-08-28 13:45 PDT.
   
   From preliminary analysis the issue was triggered due to a recent change which was rolled back to mitigate the impact.
   
   We thank you for your patience while we worked on resolving the issue.
   
   Customer Symptoms
   
   Users were experiencing an issue where they received notifications for new messages, but the actual messages failed to appear in their chat application unless the user refreshed their view.
   
   Workaround
   
   None as the issue is resolved.
   
   Affected products: Google Chat

7. 28 Aug · 20:55 UTC 🟠 Investigating atom

   Incident began at 2026-08-28 17:25 and ended at 2026-08-28 20:45 (times are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)).
   
   Summary:
   
   Google Chat users are experiencing an issue where they receive notifications for new messages, but the actual messages fail to appear in their chat application unless the user refreshes their view.
   
   Description:
   
   We are experiencing an intermittent issue with Google Chat Friday, 2026-08-28 10:25 PDT.
   
   Our engineering team has investigated the issue and are currently working on mitigating the issue.
   
   We will provide more information by Friday, 2026-08-28 14:15 PDT with current details.
   
   We apologize to all who are affected by the disruption.
   
   Customer Symptoms:
   
   Users are experiencing an issue where they receive notifications for new messages, but the actual messages fail to appear in their chat application unless the user refreshes their view
   
   Workaround:
   
   Users can refresh to see new messages
   
   Affected products: Google Chat

8. 28 Aug · 20:53 UTC 🟠 Resolved atom

   Incident began at 2026-08-28 17:25 and ended at 2026-08-28 20:45 (times are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)).
   
   Summary:
   
   Google Chat users are experiencing an issue where they receive notifications for new messages, but the actual messages fail to appear in their chat application unless the user refreshes their view.
   
   Description:
   
   We are experiencing an intermittent issue with Google Chat Friday, 2026-08-28 10:25 PDT.
   
   Our engineering team has investigated the issue and are currently working on mitigating the issue.
   
   We will provide more information by Friday, 2026-08-28 14:15 PDT with current details.
   
   We apologize to all who are affected by the disruption.
   
   Customer Symptoms:
   
   Users are experiencing an issue where they receive notifications for new messages, but the actual messages fail to appear in their chat application unless the user refreshes their view
   
   Workaround:
   
   Users can refresh to see new messages
   
   Affected products: Google Chat

9. 28 Aug · 19:25 UTC 🟠 Investigating atom

   Incident began at 2026-08-28 17:25 (times are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)).
   
   Summary:
   
   Google Chat users are experiencing an issue where they receive notifications for new messages, but the actual messages fail to appear in their chat application unless the user refreshes their view.
   
   Description:
   
   We are experiencing an intermittent issue with Google Chat Friday, 2026-08-28 10:25 PDT.
   
   Our engineering team has investigated the issue and are currently working on mitigating the issue.
   
   We will provide more information by Friday, 2026-08-28 14:15 PDT with current details.
   
   We apologize to all who are affected by the disruption.
   
   Customer Symptoms:
   
   Users are experiencing an issue where they receive notifications for new messages, but the actual messages fail to appear in their chat application unless the user refreshes their view
   
   Workaround:
   
   Users can refresh to see new messages
   
   Affected products: Google Chat