Using RCS with Google Messages on GrapheneOS

WingedHussar__

5rlyn Damn. Checked here hoping i had messed something up. Nope, back to 36 hours ;_;

Zhaethon

It took 11 days from my last fix to break down again... Ugh. Definitely considering saving a backup and going back to stock

cb474

starglider OR, you could do the phone number dance that I did, which isn't really that bad. That would completely and permanently solve your problem with iOS users, because it would appear to them that you just purchased an iPhone, and their iPhones would immediately treat you like an iMessage user via your phone number (and email, too, if you used the address they had on file for your icloud account).

Thanks again for all of the explanations.

I'm wondering if I did the phone number dance and then someday either Graphene got RCS working or there was a viable way to disable RCS and not break group messages, would I be able to stop using the bubble app and just go back to Messages with iPhone users? Or would setting this all up mean I'm sort of stuck forever using the bubble app, otherwise I will break things with iPhone users in some other way.

starglider

cb474 would I be able to stop using the bubble app and just go back to Messages with iPhone users? Or would setting this all up mean I'm sort of stuck forever

Oh no that's the easy part. Just go into the messages app on the iPhone and turn off iMessage. It'll immediately deregister you. Or just pull out the SIM card and allow the iPhone to join wifi.

cb474

5rlyn Not to mention, this thread has become so long with that finding good, relevant info is starting to become pretty difficult as many of us work to try to solve this problem.

I think the best solution to that is to start at the end and work through the comments backwards. There are a lot of out dated workarounds in here. Looking at what are the most recent things people say work is probably the best.

5rlyn

cb474 that is eventually what I settled on, leading to warp US Mobile... Hopefully my Verification is just moving a little slower than everyone else's

sparrow29

Just wanna add in here, I had to find separately how to access the debug menu (probably missed it in the giant thread).

In Google Messages app, open the search bar
Type *xyzzy* and you should see a message pop telling you Debug menu is enabled
In the menu under your user avatar, there should be a "Debug" option
Go to Debug > RCS > Report RCS Connection State

There is where you can see the bool "Etouffee: true" or false. It must be true for RCS to work/provision, whatever the message in the RCS settings says (apparently)

Zhaethon

Got it back up again, going to try staying on the 2024 version of messages and see if it sticks

FlareHeart

aaravchen

Thanks for this. Mine did the 36 hour timeout thing and I had to reinstall this morning. But I followed your procedure with the clears and reboots and the only difference was once I got the first (2024) version installed, I did have to reboot before it would try to connect (the RCS switch wasn't even available). After the reboot it sat at "connecting..." forever, so I turned RCS off and back on after waiting about 10-15 minutes and it connected immediately and checking the debug menu, it was even Etouffee: True (and a test message worked). So I think I am going to stick with the older version since it works and I'll wait to see if it doesn't time out on me.

cb474

FlareHeart So you got to Etouffee "true" with 20241120_00_RC07 (and did not have to update to 20250311_04_RC01)? If that's correct, I'll be super interested if that prevents the 36 hour reset.

I also got the 36 hour reset today, after reinstalling two days ago (before that things had worked for a month and a half). On reinstalling, I did not have to clear storage on Messages, like @aaravchen suggests. My steps were:

Deleted Messages.
Install 20241120_00_RC07 using the .apkm from APKMirror and the APKMirror app to install it.
Before opening the Messages app, set Messages as the default SMS app in the app settings (because I'm using the .apkm, I don't have to go through the step of first allowing restricted settings for Messages).
Open Messages and check that RCS in connected.
Change any RCS settings that I want to change (like disabling typing indicators), because after I update to the next version of Messages, those settings disappear and instead I just see: "RCS chats aren't available for this device. No compatible SIM card detected." It's very weird, RCS does continue to work.
Update to 20250311_04_RC01 using the .apkm for APKMirror and the APKMirror app.
I have had to reboot twice before Etouffee shows as "true." Before the recent problems I didn't have to reboot at all.

Also, as a note. This procedure worked for me two days ago fine. Today, after I first deleted Messages and then installed 20241120_00_RC07, I got a message in RCS settings that it was not available on my device. So I deleted Messages again and installed 20241120_00_RC07 again and then it said connected. Back in September when I was doing the 36 hour dance, I sometimes had things like that happen.

cb474

anorak Thanks for the explanation of how you got to the point where 20241120_00_RC07 is working on its own. Maybe I'll try again later. I've already spent a lot of time on this today.

There is one other person, FlareHeart in this thread who said they got Eouffee to "true" on 20241120_00_RC07. They said it had been stuck at "connecting," they then disabled RCS for ten minutes, reenabled it, and after that it connected and Etouffee went to "true." I tried that also, but it didn't work. It seems kind of random why this happens for some people.

5rlyn Thanks for the suggestion. Just to be clear, I'm on T-Mobile itself, not Mint. Yeah, I have thought about the US Mobile on Warp solution. I'm hesitant, because I've been on T-Mobile forever and am grandfathered into a deal I don't really want to give up. Plus, it seems like there's a decent chance that at some point Verizon will make the same updates that T-Mobile and AT&T have made and then people on Verizon will have the same problems. I'd hate to give up my T-Mobile plan and then have that happen.

litlelilim Would also love to know the timeline and scope of the GOS messaging app? Did this project just start this year?

Given that in the last couple months at one point they said they had no intention of creating their own messaging app (I wish I could remember if that was here or on twitter or reddit), it would seem this was a recent decision. It would be nice to have more clear communication about this.

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).

jumpdeer

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.

cb474

@Turtacular How did you originally determine that 20250311_04_RC01 would provision Etouffee to "true" and not reset every 36 hours? I'm wondering, since there are many many subsequent versions between then and when the problems started in September, if there may be some later version that will still last longer than 36 hours. Is is just a question of trial and error?

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 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.

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