Using RCS with Google Messages on GrapheneOS

ButtholeBlackhole

I'm fairly confident that this is somewhat related to the "verify number on device" function in the Google account settings on GrapheneOS being completely non-functional even if you grant Play Services every permission. Like I said above, when I was on the stock Pixel OS before switching to GrapheneOS my RCS wouldn't work. It actually showed as not supported in red text. I contacted Google support and they had me do those steps to reverify my number and suddenly RCS just immediately said connected and worked. The fact this doesn't work on GrapheneOS may be an issue and is worth looking into.

https://i.ibb.co/sdHjGNh7/verification.png

patienttruth99

ButtholeBlackhole in my non-developer experience, that area was definitely a part of getting RCS to work back when we were changing the permissions via adb. Flipping that on and off triggered a special code text message that Google Messages would recognize and that would get RCS to work.

It still usually triggers a code to get sent (check your archive folder), but it no longer instantly gets RCS working like it did for me in the past.

ButtholeBlackhole

patienttruth99 It doesn't seem to function at all. It never verifies. It always just says it's in progress.

carcosa

I'm currently in the "RCS connected, but etouffee not provisioned" state. I had Messages uninstalled for several months since it stopped working, but reinstalled it after I saw the update announcement from GrapheneOS. Followed the directions to enable Phone permission in sandboxed Google Play, installed, checked Messages permissions, started it, then immediately got "Connected", but couldn't send or receive RCS messages because "etoufee not provisioned". Decided to wait at least a day for it to provision.

That night, I got another update and rebooted. Lo and behold, etoufee was now provisioned. I sent one RCS message that night and saw that it was received. Went to send a text the next day, and it failed. Resent as SMS, now showing not provisioned. Turned RCS off and on, and it wouldn't connect (stuck in verifying number).

Put phone in airplane mode, force-quit Messages, erased its data, took phone out of airplane mode, started Messages, went through setup and RCS was immediately connected, but still can't send/receive, because the debug info shows "etoufee not provisioned". Been a day, wondering if it will start working again randomly.

blacklab15

I have a Pixel 8a on T-Mobile. I hadn't had any RCS since September 4th. This morning I loaded Google OS and after more clearing storage/cache shenanigans I was able to get RCS to connect and deliver the 100's of RCS messages I missed, I think I'm missing MMS ones - see below.

I reloaded Graphene OS, still no RCS.
The real problem I'm having with this is I cannot receive MMS if there is an iPhone user in the chat (which is key to communication for our family right now). I tried it with Messages off and using Graphene's Messages app. I could send, to the group but no texts came through from the Android user reply. It's something weird with iPhone group chats and Google.

The MMS works just fine with Android only group chats (I can send AND receive) .

I'm unfortunately going back to the Google bloatware and "fancy" (and ineffective) interface I thought I'd get to leave forever. I'll be back if this gets resolved by Google, until then THANK YOU Graphene team for making this non-techie able to leave most of the Google-verse for awhile.

emb

I'm on the 2025092700 beta release for P8P, and I followed the instructions in the release notes. I'm still in the "Status Code 3000" phase, but in the Messages logs I see "RCS not available for SelfIdentity." I'm pretty sure that just means it's hung up in the registration process, but wanted to double-check. Is that expected?

Ramble0174

Just updated to 2025100301 on my Pixel 8a and before I was stuck on enabled without being able to receive or send RCS now it works perfectly! (I dont know if it's due to Gms Compat Config update)

jumpdeer

Update from GOS team on Reddit

This [2025100300] release didn't change anything related to [RCS]. Improving Google Messages RCS compatibility is being worked on and some progress has been made but nothing new has been integrated into the OS yet.

bryan

jumpdeer I understand this update was unrelated to RCS, but FWIW, I am experiencing the same thing as a couple other people in this thread which is that after updating to 2025100300, I am immediately able to send and receive RCS. Before updating, I was on Connected status but unable to send or receive RCS, with attempts to send RCS falling back to SMS.

My best guess is that the fix from 2025092700 is somewhat flaky, and the update process triggered a check or provisioning task and I got "lucky". Of course, I'm not saying I know this to be true, but it's just my theory based on my experiences.

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.

mousetrapreplica

Judgeadam Everything stated by the GOS team suggests they have a good idea of the issue some users are having, which seams carrier related, and as the comment prior to yours stated via a reddit quote, a fix is in the works. It would more disappointing if they hadn't started "officially supporting" RCS, this is good news.

akolenda

Early Evaluation here, less than 1h after updating to 2025100301 I'm able to send and receive RCS.... for now

jumpdeer

akolenda Can you please list out the steps you did after the update? What permissions do you have granted to Play Services and Google Messages? What is your carrier?

jumpdeer

bryan What were your steps after reboot? Did you simply enable RCS and it worked? What is your carrier?

akolenda

jumpdeer Followed standard steps prior to update, didn't do anything, updated, worked for 1h and now its dead again

bryan

jumpdeer After sending and receiving around 45 RCS msgs, I just lost RCS connectivity again. Still says Connected in settings, but attempting to send RCS fails and falls back to SMS.

I didn't do anything special after updating, just opened the Google Messages app and RCS was just working.

akolenda

bryan Same, worked for hour or so. Back to being dead

seaside

Seems to be the case both here and in the GOS Discord Testing channel, some folks updated to 2025100300 and RCS suddenly started working again without changing anything else. But after a few hours, every case I've seen comes back to say it failed once more and can't be manually reconnected. Interesting data points, but so far seems to be irreplicable by others who did not suddenly get RCS working with the update, and doesn't seem to be a long-term fix anyway.

cb474

Does anyone know if you need to disable a VPN to get connected?

Before September I could enable RCS and connect fine with my VPN on. After September I've never been able to get back to connected status. I'm always stuck at connecting and code 3000.

I have all the necessary permissions set and I've tried wiping data on messages several times. I have not tried wiping data on play services yet.

jumpdeer

cb474 At the end of August there was a widespread change in how Google handles RCS on the backend. I myself reported a problem starting Aug 29. Any individual VPN is unlikely the problem.

GOS developers are working on it.

cb474

jumpdeer Yes, I know, I've been following this thread closely, I experienced the same problem at the same time as everyone, and have posted above about it.

But perhaps part of what changed in the beginning of September, in addition to other changes, was that Google is blocking VPN severs.

I tend to experience a lot more problems with websites and my VPN than I used to. It's obviously not the only factor, but maybe it is part of a constellation of factors. So I'm wondering if anyone has gotten their phone to say "connected" while having a VPN enabled.

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