Prognosis on RCS/WhatsApp Messaging?

DeletedUser457

Can one reasonably expect that RCS-messages or WhatsApp will reliably work under GOS going forward?

I'm pondering about switching from iOS to GOS for quite a while now and was planning to do so once Pixel 10 support rolls out. However after reading these threads

(https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/1353-using-rcs-with-google-messages-on-grapheneos)
(https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/18184-whatsapp-you-need-the-official-whatsapp-to-log-in)

I'm somewhat scared of isolating myself. First and foremost a phone is still a communication device and while in a pefect world everyone was using Signal this is clearly not the world we live in. SMS is also not an acceptable fallback for me, since a growing number of my contacts doesn't have SMS flats included in their contracts anymore, so losing iMessage was only acceptable to me, if either RCS or WhatsApp continued to work reliably under GOS. I understand that noone on these forum can know how the whole Play Integrity debacle will spin out in the end, but are the people in the mentioned threads "doing it wrong" or is there (even now) just no way to get RCS and WhatsApp running reliably with GOS? Any insights appreciated, much thanks in advance!

de0u

DeletedUser457 Can one reasonably expect that RCS-messages or WhatsApp will reliably work under GOS going forward?

Right now it's hard to say. There is some indication that different carriers may configure Google Messages to "verify" the phone using various techniques, which would be consistent with "recipes" that work for some people seeming not to work for other people.

jumpdeer

de0u It also has to do with Google Messages itself in some form. I am on Tmobile and downgrading to an earlier version instantly reconnects me to RCS. But after updating to the newest version, I lost access again within 48 hours.

DeletedUser457

Thanks for the reply! WhatsApp should be carrier-independent though, right?

de0u

DeletedUser457 WhatsApp should be carrier-independent though, right?

Indeed. Historically I think a lot of people have been using WhatsApp. Recently I think there have been some reports that people hsve trouble installing it, but I have not been following that in detail.

iudnu

I'm part of several group chats that include all iMessage folks, other than myself. It works fine. The only downside is that replies aren't always attached to the original message. So I'll see a text saying "So-and-so replied to a message" with the message, but no indication which message was actually replied to. It's annoying, but hasn't really affected communications otherwise. Reactions are always attached to the message, so we all see the same thing. I haven't had any issues with RCS other than that minor annoyance. It works great otherwise. I'm in Canada on the Rogers network BTW.

Viewpoint0232

Whatsapp works fine for me, including push notifications, and you can download the app from their website (no need for Play Store or Play Services). My suspicion (but it might well be wrong) is that Whatsapp sometimes blocks new account that were created on GOS, but if you already have registered your phone number on the iPhone you should be fine.

DeletedUser457

I'm part of several group chats that include all iMessage folks, other than myself.

Wasn't aware that iMessage and RCS were even group chat interoperable. That sounds promising, thanks.

Whatsapp works fine for me, including push notifications, and you can download the app from their website (no need for Play Store or Play Services). My suspicion (but it might well be wrong) is that Whatsapp sometimes blocks new account that were created on GOS, but if you already have registered your phone number on the iPhone you should be fine.

So far I don't have a WhatsApp-account, as this would only be my fallback if I couldn't get RCS to work, but if I decide to make the switch I will keep this in mind and create a WhatsApp-account beforehand.

Thanks a lot for your feedback! Guess I'll keep watching the forums until Pixel 10 support arrives and decide then..

FJT2

jumpdeer which version did you roll back to?

jumpdeer

FJT2 I followed this guide. But honestly just installing the old version worked for me.

CGG

Well guys, I don´t know if someone had seen this behavior on whatsapp. I have been multiple times targeted on this platform (whatsapp) from a very sophisticated method of session stealing. Not by goverment but from a bunch of well financed hackers. But this is irrelevant for now.

When i log into my whatsapp at graphene (unfortunately) this crap message app is one of my work tools) my grapheneOs clock is completely accurate but when i Look at the messages i receive some of them appears to be in future. An example is: I received a message a precisely 09:00 (GOS clock and match with all my clocks). This message shows the timestamp of it like 09:10. This didnt happened before some days ago... Does any one experienced something like this?