[com.google.android.apps.messaging]On the issue of enabling RCS and a workaround

[BurhanBudak]

Jibe works outside FCM and I dont know how. But if the enabling RCS is a UI or server request is unknown to me. But I have some questions on how it was possible for me to enable it on a rooted Google Play enabled phone, backing up the app, zip it and then transfer it to a MicroG enabled phone. It kind of works but there is the issue of updating the app and rebooting the phone.

I hope this discovery will lead to some experiments by the developers.

[BurhanBudak]

Again, I enabled the service on a Gapps enabled phone, backed up the apk, transferred the package, restored the app and now it verified. Is there any interest in analysing on how it stays online? You can't enable it with MicroG, but you can use it with MicroG, it even registeres in MicroG cloud messaging.

1. Take a magisk rooted Gapps enabled phone, any minimal Gapps is fine.
2. Enable the service with your SIM.
3. Use Neobackup to create a copy where RCS is verified
4. Disable the app on your rooted Gapps phone, turn off WiFi. Insert SIM to your primary phone.
5. Transfer the backup package to your MicroG phone and restore with Neobackup.
6. Make it your default SMS app.
7. Blacklist the app from Aurora store as updates can remove the verification.
8. Use RCS with your handful of friend's.

FYI, iPhone reactions is still dependent on Android 11+GApps dependent or lower and encryption isnt enabled! Use it with your own risk if E2E isnt a issue for you if you use SMS.

[BurhanBudak]

Also the app registered to FCM/GCM

[BurhanBudak]

Tried to update the app with Aurora store and rebooted, so far so good, no loss of RCS registration. But do it after a backup just in case. Now that I think of it, is there a backup system for RCS?

[foolishgrunt]

1. Take a magisk rooted Gapps enabled phone, any minimal Gapps is fine.
2. Enable the service with your SIM.
3. Use Neobackup to create a copy where RCS is verified
4. Disable the app on your rooted Gapps phone, turn off WiFi. Insert SIM to your primary phone.
5. Transfer the backup package to your MicroG phone and restore with Neobackup.
6. Make it your default SMS app.
7. Blacklist the app from Aurora store as updates can remove the verification.
8. Use RCS with your handful of friend's.

I followed your directions using two rooted Pixel 3a's: the first with LineageOS 20 and Mind the Gapps, the second with LineageOS 20 for Microg. Per the screenshots, RCS is properly activated on the Microg device, but the messages I send to my wife's phone (OEM Android) are plain SMS. (Her phone tried to respond to my message with RCS, but it failed and had to fall back to SMS.)

[BurhanBudak]

@foolishgrunt , did you "deactivate" the GApps phone app data? Well my Gapps Oneplus 3T is turned off and RCS doesnt have the same multi device system like iMessage.

Also, is the app registered in MicroG cloud messaging list? It takes some tries to hammer it in. Try to restore the app with Neobackup again to make sure verification is secured. Also the sender could have "send SMS if RCS isnt working" enabled. I had the same issue, my contact sent the same message 2 times, first RCS data, later SMS text.

But the cons of this RCS trick is:

• Encryption is weird to know if it is active
• Updates can break RCS
• Backups will be tricky
• FCM/GCM isnt registering
• No iPhone reactions but next year it will be redundant as iOS will follow GSMA

But my most is for the devs to reverse engineer the API for future testing.

Edit: Install Carrier Service just to be sure!

[foolishgrunt]

It appears that I may not have properly verified that RCS was working on the Gapps phone before creating the backup. I moved the SIM back to that phone to try to confirm that RCS worked, and I have not been able to send an RCS message with it yet. So I should probably bark up that tree first.

[BurhanBudak]

It appears that I may not have properly verified that RCS was working on the Gapps phone before creating the backup. I moved the SIM back to that phone to try to confirm that RCS worked, and I have not been able to send an RCS message with it yet. So I should probably bark up that tree first.

Maybe I missed to mention a step. Ways to find out if RCS works is to hold sent messages and see the type. Or if you see typing indicator.

But clear the memory of the Gapps phones Messages app.

[BurhanBudak]

It appears that I may not have properly verified that RCS was working on the Gapps phone before creating the backup. I moved the SIM back to that phone to try to confirm that RCS worked, and I have not been able to send an RCS message with it yet. So I should probably bark up that tree first.

Enable all RCS dependent functions just to be sure if it works. We dont have green and blue bubbles.

[foolishgrunt]

I have done all you suggested (as well as several other troubleshooting steps) but all messages sent and received are still processed as SMS.

I had been using Google Messages on my primary phone with LineageOS 19.1 and Gapps, but this week I upgraded it to LOS 20 for Microg. It was after this upgraded that I discovered this thread, and that point I installed LOS 20 with Gapps on a backup phone to try activating RCS and backing up you suggested. Obviously something didn't work, and it may have had something to do with the phone I tried to activate RCS on was not the same hardware on which my phone number was activated under LOS 19.1. I even tried deactivating RCS for my phone number using Google's web portal (https://messages.google.com/disable-chat) and then reactivating again, still no results.

At this point I don't know whether I care enough to continue tryin. :)

[BurhanBudak]

Well sucks that it didnt work. Maybe my success was because of not using RCS beforehand. But let it stay on, it will work sooner or later without notice.

I did get the same issue like you, the verification didnt stay alive after a update, reboot, force stop etc. Restoring twice did make it stay verified, but I couldnt enter the settings meny. Now it allows me to do it and pick either Google account or anon

But now that Apple plays ball with rhe EU being based, we can finally see carriers taking over after Google Jibe so Gapps isnt needed.

Edit: RCS is broken for everyone, even on Gapps.

[Wojtaz0w]

Hello. I tried enabling rcs on A14 with microG (it didnt work ofc) and these are logs from GMessages. Is microG purposefully dissbling rcs? My carrier is Orange and they say my phone is supported.

[BurhanBudak]

Hello. I tried enabling rcs on A14 with microG (it didnt work ofc) and these are logs from GMessages. Is microG purposefully dissbling rcs? My carrier is Orange and they say my phone is supported.

To enable rcs, you need minimal GApps but microG supports RCS usage, with some hick-ups . I dont think microG disables, but if Google is like Apple's walled garden called iMessage then Google is the foe going full simple jack like apple relation to beeper mini.

You need 2 phones, one is rooted Gapps and the other is rooted MicroG. Dont know if sand boxed GrapheneOS Gapps does support RCS.

My tutorial offers the barebones GSMA RCS support, not the suite that Google offers via Play services.

But I just tried and it doest work, fyi I dont have that many RCS users to test with. right now enabling and disabling the service is broken for me, so I will let it stay disabled in the phone for a month and then try again. Im just a novice webdev that tried to overthink the issue.

[BurhanBudak]

PSA: For now, disable RCS so that Google de-registers the service automatically because of ideal usage. Something is broken but wait a month until is cleared, I cant de-register or register, not sure if Google shadow bans numbers.

As expected, updating the app could be the culprit, you lose the registration. Also Carrier Service isnt needed for baseline GSMA RCS service if we go by facts.

[lukeaschenbrenner]

Adding my two cents: I was able to restore Google Messages data to a device with MicroG from a device that had full GMS. After the restore, RCS was able to be turned off and on arbitrarily. I installed Carrier Services, but it seems like RCS turns itself off after disabling Google Messages' battery optimization. While base RCS functionality is working as others here have mentioned, Google Messages seems to be consuming an abnormal amount of battery. Over a 12 hour period, Google Messages has used 300 mAh alone. Here's a snippet of the logcat with battery optimization turned on for messages (yet still with high battery usage).

[BurhanBudak]

Adding my two cents: I was able to restore Google Messages data to a device with MicroG from a device that had full GMS. After the restore, RCS was able to be turned off and on arbitrarily. I installed Carrier Services, but it seems like RCS turns itself off after disabling Google Messages' battery optimization. While base RCS functionality is working as others here have mentioned, Google Messages seems to be consuming an abnormal amount of battery. Over a 12 hour period, Google Messages has used 300 mAh alone. Here's a snippet of the logcat with battery optimization turned on for messages (yet still with high battery usage).

Still a mystery on how you register. I get bugs to: As you see, it says 1970. I also get Jibe service on even without RCS working and the app is on unrestricted mode for battery.

The toggle is just a UI status for the client, not the serverstatus. We might as well ask the iMessage guy or wait for Apple to make GSMA RCS a standard.

[BurhanBudak]

So the Google plot thickens, SafetyNet and PlayIntegrity is the cause of RCS breaking. Google decided to go the Apple route. Lets hope the EU see Google as a gatekeeper, instant messaging shouldnt have a freaking DRM!

https://old.reddit.com/r/Magisk/comments/186waqg/help_why_is_magiskroot_breaking_rcs/

RCS is dependent on G-Apps, it cant work independently. But the fix is to spoof Google so my solution wont work anymore. Well thanks for the attention and discord on the topic, I hope carrier RCS service returns.

[lukeaschenbrenner]

So the Google plot thickens, SafetyNet and PlayIntegrity is the cause of RCS breaking. Google decided to go the Apple route. Lets hope the EU see Google as a gatekeeper, instant messaging shouldnt have a freaking DRM!

https://old.reddit.com/r/Magisk/comments/186waqg/help_why_is_magiskroot_breaking_rcs/

RCS is dependent on G-Apps, it cant work independently. But the fix is to spoof Google so my solution wont work anymore. Well thanks for the attention and discord on the topic, I hope carrier RCS service returns.

Thanks for the follow-up regarding this situation. This absolutely sucks - there's no way any engineer at Google should have conceived that Play Integrity as a prerequisite to RCS is a good idea to implement. Regarding my previous message - I was briefly able to receive RCS messages, but after trying to send one, they failed to send (and no more RCS messages were received). After a few more minutes, my phone got the "incompatible carrier" error on the RCS settings menu. Oh well - moving back to a more secure cross-platform app like Signal now. Thanks all for your input on this issue!

[BurhanBudak]

So the Google plot thickens, SafetyNet and PlayIntegrity is the cause of RCS breaking. Google decided to go the Apple route. Lets hope the EU see Google as a gatekeeper, instant messaging shouldnt have a freaking DRM! https://old.reddit.com/r/Magisk/comments/186waqg/help_why_is_magiskroot_breaking_rcs/ RCS is dependent on G-Apps, it cant work independently. But the fix is to spoof Google so my solution wont work anymore. Well thanks for the attention and discord on the topic, I hope carrier RCS service returns.

Thanks for the follow-up regarding this situation. This absolutely sucks - there's no way any engineer at Google should have conceived that Play Integrity as a prerequisite to RCS is a good idea to implement. Regarding my previous message - I was briefly able to receive RCS messages, but after trying to send one, they failed to send (and no more RCS messages were received). After a few more minutes, my phone got the "incompatible carrier" error on the RCS settings menu. Oh well - moving back to a more secure cross-platform app like Signal now. Thanks all for your input on this issue!

No worries, it was interesting to analyze this issue, I was hoping someone would connect the dots but on the front to emulate rcs there is some progress with open source clients. Or the kid who broke iMessage could find a option to tap into the Google RCS service but Apple RCS project could force the carriers to pick up some slack by taking back the servers.