diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index bb9da988..f17e990c 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -87,4 +87,5 @@ group :test do
   gem "selenium-webdriver"
   gem "minitest-stub_any_instance"
   gem "rails-controller-testing"
+  gem "minitest-retry"
 end
diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index 7a9280e7..9c8e880c 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -202,6 +202,8 @@ GEM
     mini_magick (4.13.2)
     mini_mime (1.1.5)
     minitest (5.25.1)
+    minitest-retry (0.2.3)
+      minitest (>= 5.0)
     minitest-stub_any_instance (1.0.3)
     mize (0.4.1)
       protocol (~> 2.0)
@@ -493,6 +495,7 @@ DEPENDENCIES
   gemini-ai (~> 4.2.0)
   image_processing (~> 1.13.0)
   importmap-rails
+  minitest-retry
   minitest-stub_any_instance
   name_of_person
   omniauth (~> 2.1)
diff --git a/test/system/conversations/messages/images_test.rb b/test/system/conversations/messages/images_test.rb
index 3e96155d..af3f07d1 100644
--- a/test/system/conversations/messages/images_test.rb
+++ b/test/system/conversations/messages/images_test.rb
@@ -90,28 +90,21 @@ class ConversationMessagesImagesTest < ApplicationSystemTestCase
       visit_and_scroll_wait conversation_messages_path(@conversation)
 
       image_msg       = find_messages.third
-      image_btn = image_msg.find_role("image-preview")
+      image_btn       = image_msg.find_role("image-preview")
       loader          = image_btn.find_role("image-loader")
       img             = image_btn.find("img", visible: :all)
       modal_container = image_msg.find_role("image-modal")
       modal_loader    = modal_container.find_role("image-loader")
       modal_img       = modal_container.find("img", visible: :all)
 
-      assert_true "image loader should be visible", wait: 0.6 do
+      assert_true "image loader should be visible", wait: 3 do
         loader.visible?
       end
       refute img.visible?
 
       image_btn.click
 
-      2.times do
-        sleep 0.1
-        sleep 0.5 if !modal_loader.visible?
-        sleep 0.1
-        image_btn.click if !modal_loader.visible?
-      end # TODO: sometimes modal has not popped up after clicking, why?? Try 2x times before failing the test.
-
-      assert_true "modal image loader should be visible", wait: 0.6 do
+      assert_true "modal image loader should be visible", wait: 3 do
         modal_loader.visible?
       end
       refute modal_img.visible?
diff --git a/test/test_helper.rb b/test/test_helper.rb
index 5c9d5066..ad1acbf7 100644
--- a/test/test_helper.rb
+++ b/test/test_helper.rb
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 require_relative "../config/environment"
 require "rails/test_help"
 require "minitest/autorun"
+require "minitest/retry"
 require "pry"
 
 Dir[Rails.root.join("test/support/**/*.rb")].sort.each { |file| require file }
@@ -20,6 +21,12 @@ def exists?
   end
 end
 
+Minitest::Retry.use!(
+  retry_count: 3,
+  verbose: true,
+  exceptions_to_retry: [Net::ReadTimeout]
+)
+
 class ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest
   include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers