Using RCS with Google Messages on GrapheneOS

BeepBeep

I really miss the days when Signal's app also processed SMS/MMS. That was a gateway to getting people onto secure messaging.

Bacon

Yea, sucks that it's such a huge problem in the US. green bubble vs blue bubble will not die, and most people don't care about using other apps for messaging, let alone their privacy.

ButtholeBlackhole

DirtyDan Your mistake was asking in the first place. You just do it. Be extremely brazen about it too.

Probably doesn't hurt that almost everyone I know is an Android user anyway. They never had iMessage in the first place and don't really care.

WestQuester

ButtholeBlackhole Your mistake was asking in the first place. You just do it. Be extremely brazen about it too.

Sounds pretty controlling and obnoxious to me.

ButtholeBlackhole

WestQuester Oh no! I installed one messaging app they won't even notice! The horror. I'm shaking in my baby seal leather boots.

lcalamar

I have a problem I believe is related to the latest GOS release...

I use Beeper (for putting all my communication apps in one place).

Previously, prior to 2025090700 I had no issues pairing google messages to Beeper (for it to work)...

However - I am no longer able to pair (pair devices in google messages isn't even giving the option any more to do account pairing...)

I have a dump in this thread I opened:
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/26965-pairing-messages-to-beeper-failing-now

GrapheneOS

lcalamar Does not seem related to this or to GrapheneOS. You should raise the issue with them.

lcalamar

GrapheneOS Yeah - sent that dump to Beeper and they also said it isn't their problem - something was 'blocking' the pairing - the dump shows something is failing in google messages - so likely something changed in google messages... :(

swurl

Getting a "Not Supported" error saying my device doesn't meet security requirements. I know for a fact it used to work up until a few days ago. All my permissions are good, quadruple checked it all

Your device does not meet security requirements

userx04197321065

It worked for me up until a few weeks ago but I had to allow DCL via memory with Play Services, which was a deal breaker

Xtreix

I tried activating RCS several times and it still doesn't work for me. I installed Google Messages and Carrier Services, and authorized for all three Phone, SMS, and contacts-scope, I always get the same response in Google Messages: "This device do dot meet security requirement"

I may be missing some permissions, but I've already activated too many, I don't like it. I don't really care about RCS, the only thing I care si the opportunistic E2EE by Google. I'll wait for new updates. I know that GrapheneOS plans to create their own RCS app.

chinook

Xtreix

I'll wait for new updates. I know that GrapheneOS plans to create their own RCS app.

Xtreix I don't think GrapheneOS will make this app available anytime soon tbh. Viable backup replacement is ~~in the making~~ planned and would probably be of the higher priority than RCS?

It's more likely they'll fix Google Messages first.

From the FAQ of my favourite sms client, https://textra.me/ :

The RCS interfaces (APIs) on Android are currently only available for Google internally to use, no other third party developer has access.
We are hopeful Google will make these RCS interfaces available in the near future to all developers (in the spirit of Android open source), so that Textra SMS can also offer RCS functionality.

(no RCS for me until textra supports it, lol, I can't imagine using anything else tbh :) )

jumpdeer

Since RCS is not working, I am missing out on group chat messages. Should I somehow deregister my device in the meantime? It is turned off in the app settings but I am not getting group messages.

atom123

jumpdeer I would not deregister anything if you are afraid of not getting group messages. Idk... I went through the steps of unregistering my phone number from my old stock device last month before i switched to graphene. Unregistering phone number from RCS like google often says as a step in debugging the RCS issue...They neglect to tell you the consequences of unregistering your phone number or at least don't make it obvious. The problem is that when you do that and unregister your phone number it makes you leave every single RCS group chat you have ever been apart of with that phone number. I did this (stupidly and without understanding what I was doing) and it forced me to leave 20+ group chats over several years. I would maybe do this as a last, last resort so you don't nuke everything like I did. I am still rebuilding group chats because you can't really just be added back.

Also if anyone else has dealt with the nuke of unregistering your phone number from RCS before let me know :') That really messed up my messaging tbh. Does anyone else have feedback on that? I can only imagine that the unregistering process wiped me from the servers and forced me to leave all RCS based chats... I don't understand the intricacies of these systems or how exactly they work. I am slowly rebuilding things with SMS until I get RCS back online, but even then until it is stable i may not reenable RCS again so I don't potentially nuke everything again.

areaman

Anyone else on Verizon still stuck (p8p)? The new update got RCS working for about a day after following the instructions, then RCS messages started to fail to send (all with an iPhone user). Now I get the same old "device doesn't meet security requiremnts" message. I did clear storage + cache for both carrier services and google messages again (and re-set the permissions per the directions) with no luck.

opensourcedeeznuts

areaman Verizon here, RCS still broken for me. GOS Update made no difference.

Group chats being broken is becoming a real issue that might get me to move over to iOS. Grateful for the GOS team's active work on this though, hopefully they can pull through.

ButtholeBlackhole

atom123 I did that back when I first switched to AT&T and RCS refused to activate for me on stock. Luckily I wasn't in any group chats so it didn't really break anything. Once it actually activated I just kept messaging people and it worked fine.

BTW, the deregistering didn't actually fix it for me. Google support basically made me update my phone number on my account to the exact same number (literally just click to edit it then click save without changing anything) and it worked.

Go to your Google account settings on your phone, click "personal info", click "phone" under contact info, disable any devices under "verifying phone numbers on devices", and then click on your phone number, click the pencil, then click update number without changing anything, then turn verification back on for your device on the previous screen.

This actually forces RCS to reregister your device and can fix it when it gets stuck.

Edit: Actually it seems like this is stuck on endless "verifying your device" on GrapheneOS. Maybe that's related to why RCS doesn't work.

Judgeadam

opensourcedeeznuts unfortunately same. It's so disappointing. I am stuck at "setting up" even with all the updates, no VPN, permissions all added, and wiped and reinstalled.

This is just so damn disappointing. I literally bought the p9p for Graphene OS use. Ugh. Let's hope it gets fixed.

Turtacular

Do we know with any degree of certainty in which cases the issue is the carrier vs those cases where the issue is the changes Google seems to have made? My understanding is that some degree of dovetailing exists there in any case.

Also, I'd hope this problem with RCS would prompt more fire to move to Signal instead of iOS. I do understand the friction, but I am not sure I understand iOS being the solution given the cost involved (monetary and otherwise).

ButtholeBlackhole

Turtacular Google handles all of the RCS activation and verification on Android. So it's almost certainly on their side rather than the carriers.

robertmckeever2

Hey thread - adding my $.02 into this.

I am using 2 P8a's on US Mobile with their "Dark Star" network backed by AT&T, and I cannot activate either of my devices with RCS in GM.

I've been searching this forum and other places online for the past day to get this working. I will have to flash back to stock because I am missing out on group chats. (Unless the GOS staff plan a release soon? Saw something about adding a toggle earlier in the thread.)

BTW, totally feel the others in the US with the green/blue bubble nonsense and trying to move to Signal or Telegram. Just stupid - and it's really the constant marketing that happened around iMessage when it released in 2011 that caused the great divide. (I sold phones at the time and it was a HUGE push for iPhone when all other carriers finally got their hands on them after the AT&T 5y agreement with Apple.)

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