Malfunctioning SMS Messaging — notifications, send images, receive texts

niko-goso

Hi GOS, the original GOS Messenger app worked well since GOS install on new Pixel 8 Pro. But over some time it became increasingly slower. Slower to present messages after the notification, and slower to send messages. Then I noticed a notification would appear (and sound) but no message was shown. I could send messages ok.

I tried another SMS app and it could display existing and new SMS messages but images were not being sent (with send error displayed) and tapping on the image tn enlarge resulted in a black screen.

I've re-Enabled Google Messages with Network and a few other permissions Disabled and it appears to be working well.

Does Google Messages leak data over the Internet via Play Services, and are there any other privacy breaking capabilities that can be disabled in GOS?

Cheers

23Sha-ger

niko-goso Does Google Messages leak data over the Internet via Play Services

Depends what you consider "leaking". The app doesn't send the content of your messages to Google.
But it pings their servers for various additional services like RCS. So if you want to avoid Google at all costs,
disable network permission to it. That should be sufficient enough.

niko-goso

Interestingly the notifications are not showing the content of any of the messages, just the alert itself — neither when locked or unlocked. Maybe it is that other Google services are denied their full permissions?

All notifications are enabled.

niko-goso

23Sha-ger

Thanks — by leaking I mean routing network communication through other services when denied a direct connection (Network is disabled). Or perhaps some communication via other services might already be baked in to the way Google Messages works.

It is difficult to believe that Google and others are not implementing mechanisms to identify and track users at every opportunity.

23Sha-ger

niko-goso It is difficult to believe that Google and others are not implementing mechanisms to identify and track users at every opportunity.

They do, but they don't need your SMS for that. There are countless ways to profile users, the most simple one
is search history when signed into the account. This is the most accurate metric for them to know your interests.