Using RCS with Google Messages on GrapheneOS

Turtacular

cb474 unfortunately so. It's a moving target at this point even more than when I was actively putting time into finding a stopgap.

Do we know if the method I used is officially back to 24-36 hour resets? If so, I'm not sure the solution is better than the problem for my personal use. I can't find a mobile plan with enough value to move my family off Mint, and I'm not seeing sufficient evidence that moving anywhere except possibly Fi would be a long term solution anyway. Happy to be wrong, though.

aaravchen

Turtacular
It does appear that's the case, your original method no longer works for more than 36 hours.
I can +1 the problem myself, and I've seen at least 3 other people in this thread say the same thing.

5rlyn

Turtacular from a financial standpoint, US Mobile seems to have comparable pricing. @DirtyDan reports RCS working on "Warp," although I haven't gotten it working yet. Ported yesterday afternoon.

cb474

aaravchen Yeah, the issue with RCS settings disappearing and it saying instead that RCS is not available on the device, even though it is actually working, is super weird. I've only seen one other person mention it here, after I first reported the phenomenon.

Turtacular Yeah, I've been using your method and I just got the 36 hour reset today. I wonder why that problem has started with 20250311_04_RC01? Did something change again on the backend servers? Is it just because of the relative age of that version of Messages? And does it make more sense to see if there is an older version of Messages that will provision Etouffee to true, but not reset at 36 hours, or to look for a newer version of Messages that will solve the problem?

aaravchen

cb474

I haven't seen issues with the RCS settings disappearing on the 20250311_04_RC01 build before, but I have also seen intermittent issues with "RCS not available on this device" on the 20241120_00_RC07 build and handled the same way you did (uninstall and try again).

DeletedUser638

cb474 I followed @aaravchen's method and only after upgrading to the apkm did I receive the "welcome to RCS" message. In settings, it shows my status as connected (T-Mobile P7).

However, it took three reboots over the course of a couple of hours for get Etouffee provisioning to switch over to true.

aaravchen

cb474 Not sure if it's related, but I realized my Seedbault backups were set to auto-restore on reinstall, and that was messing with my first install if I didn't manually wipe all storage before uninstall or before opening the first time after re-install. I even saw weird effects like the Gemini setting option (which wasn't a feature even available in the first apk) showing up in my settings for the first apk.

Also, yeah all this mess is carrier settings changes. They opaquely define and manage the authentication and authorization restrictions.

EFIT: Reply to second half

Turtacular

cb474 Regarding etouffee, my trial and error found the second APK I listed as the earliest version that would provision at the time; however, weeks prior to that, some earlier versions would. My guess is that Google has set provisioning to true for a limited number of versions earlier than the most current version. Unfortunately, the later we go in terms of versions (out of necessity) the more likely we are to lose the ability to reverify as all the parts continue to move.

cb474

Turtacular Regarding etouffee, my trial and error found the second APK I listed as the earliest version that would provision at the time; however, weeks prior to that, some earlier versions would. My guess is that Google has set provisioning to true for a limited number of versions earlier than the most current version. Unfortunately, the later we go in terms of versions (out of necessity) the more likely we are to lose the ability to reverify as all the parts continue to move.

Yeah, it seems like if we go to later versions, they likely will not be able to get RCS to "connected" and/or reverify, but the earlier we go they won't be able to provision Etouffee to "true." Did you really trial and error sequentially through every version, backwards in time, until you found one that would provision Etouffee? Or did you just try a few and find one. I'm just wondering if it's worth trying to be super methodical about it.

WestQuester

My Messages on Pixel 8, Mint Mobile (20241120_00_RC07.phone_dynamic versionCode 262371063) is somehow still working with RCS and has been for the last several months. I'm trying not to breathe on it so it doesn't break.

Tried the exact same setup on my wife's phone (Pixel 7 Pro) but Etoufee will not go true.

patienttruth99

Positive news for Verizon at least. I've now updated the past two stable versions of GrapheneOS and RCS didn't skip a beat whereas the past few updates it broke for a few days until it randomly started again without change in the debug indications. I'm still waiting for apps to update on the second update to be in the clear, but yesterday's update finish and RCS remained so I'm hopeful.

5rlyn

patienttruth99 I'm planning on trying to activate RCS a little later today, as I was stupid and forgot to deactivate when moving from Mint to US Warp. Hopefully I just needed to give it all a break.

Turtacular

cb474 That's the rub, unfortunately.

I found one that would provision Etouffee true and then went forward in time by one version until I found one that wouldn't disconnect after 24 hours (which had been the time limit for my device under the previous method I'd been using). Oddly, it didn't take as long as it sounds. Looking back, though, I wonder if I could have found a later version that still accomplishes the same goal.

I'm currently back on the same versions I posted earlier in the thread. I'm coming up on 36 hours and haven't disconnected yet. My typing that last sentence will likely be the catalyst for RCS to drop, though.

DirtyDan

5rlyn yes it's still working across multiple GrapheneOS devices with us mobile warp.

Soundblaster

DirtyDan I swapped from Visible to US Mobile today and after failing to set up Dark Star RCS I just swapped to Warp. SMS is working, but RCS won't send despite saying "Connected" in Messages settings. Do I just need to wait for some time or are there extra steps for US Mobile warp for you?

patienttruth99

Soundblaster fwiw that's the symptoms I had with Verizon after updating os versions in the past. It says connected, but no sending w/o fallback to SMS. Give it a couple days. That fixed it for me.

5rlyn

It's possible that the troubleshooting step I'm about to share is completely anecdotal and won't help anyone, but on the off chance it helps I'll share.

I ported out of Mint and went to US Mobile - mistakenly ended up on Dark Star but moved over to Warp right away. However, RCS wouldn't connect, even after disabling RCS for over 24 hours. Shout out to US - they have the most troubleshooting techniques of any carrier I've used (most were things already recommended here, but still). I did install Carrier Services - I know the devs had said it's unnecessary, but since the Help Agent suggested clearing cache and data for it I did. After no success, it was recommended that I "try another app that supports RCS." Now clearly, their info is out of date...Verizon's Messages app no longer exists. But on a whim, I searched the Play Store for RCS, and found Smart Messages. I downloaded and installed, then poked around for a bit. Didn't really like the app, but while I was fiddling a message that "Chat Features were enabled for this device" popped up. On a whim, I opened Google Messages, which of course informed me that it was no longer my default messaging app. I changed back to GM within the app itself, and just like that, RCS connected. I received all missed group messages (thankfully nothing too important), and for the most part can send RCS to anyone who has enabled RCS (there's some that are sporadically sending as SMS, but its a minority).

It could be a huge coincidence - it may have been that I just needed to wait things out post port and Smart Messages didn't factor in at all. I don't know if it'll work for anyone else, especially since I'm no longer using a T-Mobile MVNO, but can't hurt to try!

aaravchen

5rlyn
If you read the details about Smart Messages, it's entirely a false claim that they use RCS. They say pretty far down in thier details that they use thier own servers, and you can only "RCS" with other people that have Smart Messages. What they clearly have is a proprietary messaging app that can do SMS/MMS as well, and they're falsely claiming it's RCS.

Much more likely is that your time spent messing with Smart Messages stopped your device from trying to do anything RCS server related with your carrier, but did register SMS/MMS support with your carrier, and that did something that helped with the transition to your new carrier. I strongly suspect it wouldn't have mattered which other SMS/MMS app you used, and that it was probably specific to the switching carriers case.

cb474

aaravchen Yeah, I came across Smart Messages a while ago. My impression was that between people using the Smart Messages app it uses the RCS protocol to exchange encrypted messages, but it has nothing to do with the carrier system. So as you say, it's basically a closed messaging system (like Signal, etc.), but that also handles SMS/MMS. It's kind of two separate apps working through two separate systems, but wrapped up in one app, like iMessage.

I too often think that when people, myself included, do all these extra steps, rebooting, clearing caches, setting extra permissions, etc., what's really happening is time is passing, after which things work. Not that some of the steps that don't matter, but it seems like others really probably don't.

cb474

Turtacular Thanks for the description of how you did it. Yesterday, I tried the version right before 20250311_04_RC01, but it would not provision Etouffee. At this point, I've had 20250311_04_RC01 do the 36 hour reset on me twice. Maybe I'll try going forward in time instead.

Turtacular

Turtacular My typing that last sentence will likely be the catalyst for RCS to drop, though.

Wouldn't you know it.

I'm probably going to just tough it out with the built in messaging app or Textra while pushing for Signal usage as long I can without returning to stock and hope the devs reconsider this as a priority. I don't personally consider stock a viable option, but indefinitely missing important messages is arguably less viable. I'm reminded of the old phrase, "it ain't my fault, but it's my responsibility," here because this mess really isn't the fault of GrapheneOS originally. I'm sorry to see the responsibility land on them as heavily as it appears to have.

« Previous Page Next Page »