Using RCS with Google Messages on GrapheneOS

bluesl33ves

Did yours ever sort itself out?

I finally gave it a try. Used Aurora store to download the old APK, put the Verizon ACL in, RCS connected and I updated to the current beta. RCS has remained connected for a week or so now.

I did attempt to toggle it off then on, and it would not reconnect so I had to go through the whole process again.

A word of warning for those of you who like to keep a clean inbox, switching to the old APK unarchives everything. You will have to manually archive everything again. 😮‍💨

[deleted] what option did you turn off? I'm not following.

patienttruth99
SMS permission in Google Play Services. Last week Wednesday or so. And RCS disconnected on Saturday.

p0well34 Playing with the SMS permission toggle for Google Play Services did get the status to change from "Trying to verify" to "Setting up..." but then went back to "Trying to verify".

Syberkonda Agreed. Though I'm not sure that the ACS URL is the entire problem. I've had it disconnect on me even though the Debug menu in the most recent version of Google Messages still showed the correct URL.

Ninja4694 when I first tried the big workaround last week and then immediately tried turning RCS off and on, (it wouldn't turn back on) he ACS url stayed in the debug menu for a couple hours. Then it went away. I had to start over. It's been working since (just a week or so).

Has anyone tried updating the old Google Messages Beta to the latest Beta version and staying on that?

[deleted] yes, that's what I understood @bluesl33ves had done, so I tried it and have been on it for about a week. Don't turn it off though as it wouldn't reconnect.

Ninja4694
It must work for some setups or maybe different carriers. All I know is it works for some. You can also try having SMS off then toggling it on and get positive results as well. Of course, depending on if it is possible on said device.

This is the error I'm getting when trying from usb:

cheetah:/ $ am start -n com.google.android.apps.messaging/.ui.appsettings.rcs.overrides.OverrideFlagsActivity
Starting: Intent { cmp=com.google.android.apps.messaging/.ui.appsettings.rcs.overrides.OverrideFlagsActivity }

Exception occurred while executing 'start':
java.lang.SecurityException: Permission Denial: starting Intent { flg=0x10000000 cmp=com.google.android.apps.messaging/.ui.appsettings.rcs.overrides.OverrideFlagsActivity } from null (pid=1660, uid=2000) not exported from uid 10232
	at com.android.server.wm.ActivityTaskSupervisor.checkStartAnyActivityPermission(ActivityTaskSupervisor.java:1136)
	at com.android.server.wm.ActivityStarter.executeRequest(ActivityStarter.java:1081)
	at com.android.server.wm.ActivityStarter.execute(ActivityStarter.java:742)
	at com.android.server.wm.ActivityTaskManagerService.startActivityAsUser(ActivityTaskManagerService.java:1290)
	at com.android.server.wm.ActivityTaskManagerService.startActivityAsUser(ActivityTaskManagerService.java:1241)
	at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerService.startActivityAsUserWithFeature(ActivityManagerService.java:3295)
	at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerShellCommand.runStartActivity(ActivityManagerShellCommand.java:724)
	at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerShellCommand.onCommand(ActivityManagerShellCommand.java:233)
	at com.android.modules.utils.BasicShellCommandHandler.exec(BasicShellCommandHandler.java:97)
	at android.os.ShellCommand.exec(ShellCommand.java:38)
	at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerService.onShellCommand(ActivityManagerService.java:9862)
	at android.os.Binder.shellCommand(Binder.java:1109)
	at android.os.Binder.onTransact(Binder.java:926)
	at android.app.IActivityManager$Stub.onTransact(IActivityManager.java:5311)
	at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerService.onTransact(ActivityManagerService.java:2767)
	at android.os.Binder.execTransactInternal(Binder.java:1392)
	at android.os.Binder.execTransact(Binder.java:1328)

thed0ctor Try clearing storage for Activity Launcher and force stopping it. That should get it to refresh the available options.

patienttruth99 RCS has remained connected for a week or so now

Did you do anything specific? Mine has disconnected right at the 3 day mark, unfortunately.

p0well34 It must work for some setups or maybe different carriers. All I know is it works for some.

what carrier did you say you're on?

Ninja4694 it still has a lock and throws that error when I try to tap it

hemlockiv No, just followed the guide.

thed0ctor figured it out. I think I had the wrong version. This one didn't have a lock and I was able to set the flag com.google.android.apps.messaging_5.2.051(Pegasus_RC05_alldpi.arm64-v8a.phone)-52051040_minAPI21(arm64-v8a)(nodpi)apkmirror.com.apk upgrading to beta now. Will post back if it fails

I've been on a stable RCS connection now for one week and two days, which is the longest I've ever maintained. The only thing I changed was enabling compatibility mode in the app settings.
A couple other observations:
-GrapheneOS did update once and Google Messages updated twice during this period.
-When I go to Debug -> RCS -> Report RCS Connection State, it used to say "Transport: Chat API w/ RCS". Now it says "Transport: Chat API w/ Tachygram". I have no idea what Tachygram is.

I don't know if the improved stability is due to enabling compatibility mode, the updates, or just pure luck. I'll continue to run it with compatibility enabled, and if after a month it continues to stay connected I'll disable it and see if the connection remains. I'll also add that if this is a solution to the problem, I don't know if the risk is worth the reward. Is the security vulnerability from reduced sandboxing more important than the privacy of E2EE?

Ugh,

It disconnected today. I did just do an update, maybe it had to do with that, but I'd done a couple updates in the last week or two without issue.
The wording changed slightly on the RCS verify page.

"RCS chats require a verified number".

I'm not gonna go through the whole process again. It would be great to find out what it is about Graphene OS is preventing this from working. Is there anyway we can contribute debug logs or anything?