• Off Topic

  • New GrapheneOS User: Why is the default messaging app so old?

Oggyo Thanks for the heads up, I had seen there was QuiKSMS too when I was deciding what to test.

Random chance? choose between an older, stable app with no recent updates but has/had a lot of users ... or a fork with a new developer. Which one do I trust more? I have no way of knowing.

This is one reason why I stick with the default apps. I find the whole ios/android app ecosystem a bit Wild West really. How can folk know what to trust? I admit Linux might be no better or worse if you are not careful. I trust my distribution but wish I had the SElinux skillset to get Linux working for me in the same way AOSP/GrapheneOS does its stuff. I think Flatpak is aiming to do this sort of thing but I've not been there yet.

Nice thing with GrapheneOS is that I don't mind trying something out in a secondary profile:

  • install app, disconnect from network/wifi,
  • go into the AppInfo > toggle off all/most permissions especially network and storage.
  • Open up app, play around to understand it then uninstall or disable the app.

In this case I was able to learn all I needed about QKSMS (and solve my problem, yay) without ever connecting the phone to a network whilst the app was enabled. Because of the option to backup SMS I decided to just disable QKSMS rather than uninstall it.

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      • Post #11
      • Edited

      matchboxbananasynergy I admire your talent for saying things the right way, I wish I could do that. World is not perfect. I need to stay away from commenting on things I find flaw with and stay on the helpful side. You're welcome to delete after reading.

        tornsail-smllwng
        Yes, this is a good question. I guess, somebody who can read the app's code probably can get the answer. I was a longtime QKSMS user. No major bug and it served me well. Then decided to switch to a similar but maintained app. Fork of QKSMS was a perfect candidate. Initial versions of QUIK had some bugs that really put some doubts about the skills/trust of its developer.
        Like you, running in an isolated environment/profile with minimum permission is a way to go.

          I've started using QUIK SMS (QKSMS revival) as the AOSP SMS app stopped showing contact names for me regardless of what I tried to fix. Prefer it so far, got it off Droidify.

          dot_______166 The GrapheneOS maintenance team has other priorities, such as inter-app communication scopes, or a backup solution, which are in high demand. Cool features and beautiful applications, even if maintained by another team (which always require an integration load), are not a priority for the foreseeable future.

            matchboxbananasynergy That's nice to know, even if that's not GOS focus at the moment. I personally got Google Messages to work with RCS, but some people prefer to go "no compromise with Google" route.

              dot_______166 Last I checked, lineageos was using the same upstream aosp applications, just with a whole bunch of very questionable and dangerous patches, for instance, they added some stuff to the dialer to interact with 3rd party servers for callerid.

                  Dumdum How do you define "stable"? And why do you assume that it should have more changes than once a year? If there's nothing wrong with something, why does it need to be fixed?

                      bookreader How do you define "stable"?

                      Versions that aren't pre-releases, I imagine, which certainly seems to be what Oggyo was referring to as they said Feb 2021 (the date of the last non-prerelease update).

                      And why do you assume that it should have more changes than once a year? If there's nothing wrong with something, why does it need to be fixed?

                      *looks at the QKSMS github and its 499 open issues *

                      I'm not "assuming" anything. I made a logical conclusion based on available info. Since there's a fork which continues development of QKSMS, it's safe to say I'm not the only one who understands the app should have more changes than once a year.

                          tornsail-smllwng I installed and 'tested' QKSMS yesterday (from f-droid)

                          Last updated 3 years ago. Use QUIK SMS instead. It's an updated fork, also available from f-Droid.

                            Fossify SMS Messenger is a good alternative.
                            Though I use the default apps since it works perfectly fine and I don't want to install more apps in my phone.

                            Viewpoint0232 If I may make a suggestion to the GrapheneOS developers... can you not just patch out the warning ("made for an older version") of the Messages and Phone apps? I think otherwise these apps are both okay, not great, but good enough.

                            I think this alert is due to the apps tagetSdk is 24 and min is 34(android 14)

                                W1zardK1ng
                                It's TEN API "levels" behind? Yikes. Here I expected it to be 1-2 years behind, not closer to 10.

                                  5 days later

                                  W1zardK1ng

                                  I think this alert is due to the apps tagetSdk is 24 and min is 34(android 14)

                                  No, that's not correct. Messaging is built as part of the OS with the API 34 SDK. It has no reason to support older versions so the minimum was set to 34, which makes sense for all these kinds of components only shipped as part of the OS. The target API level is based on which set of backwards incompatible changes it can deal with. It was never properly ported to supporting newer semantics for notifications and much more so it remained targeting API 24.

                                  The warning is shown based on an API being below what's considered the bare minimum standard for a modern app which is currently 28. Play Store enforces 33 as the minimum for new apps and app updates.

                                    9 days later

                                    matchboxbananasynergy @GrapheneOS Would contributions to the default AOSP apps forked by GrapheneOS be likely to be considered to be merged?

                                    AOSP apps certainly look old and could have a few improvements, it would be nice to have a modern experience out of the box. I thought to give it a go, but if this is most likely going to be ignored maybe my efforts should be focused somewhere else.

                                    Someone would say "just install other apps". Well yes, but a tightly integrated environment from the start must be beneficial.

                                    My thought would be to start with lower impact apps, such as the Calculator and Clock, so to see how it's received.

                                    Edit: Tagging user