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Google is silently blocking RCS messages on rooted Android phones and custom ROMs

TL;DR

  • Users who have rooted their phone, have their bootloader unlocked or are using some custom ROMs report that their RCS messages are not being sent, even though RCS shows them as connected.
  • The Google Messages app does not show any error messages when blocking RCS messages of these users and does not send the messages out as SMS or MMS either.
  • Google famously campaigned for Apple to include RCS messaging in iMessage but is now blocking it for certain Android users.
moon ,

I'm on GrapheneOS. It just never verifies my number for RCS, so everything is just sent as SMS/MMS. Has been going on for a couple of months now. I have no idea why as it does not remotely harm them whatsoever, and hurts their adoption. I'm waiting for a non shitty RCS app to come out, hopefully one that's FOSS.

BaardFigur ,

I don't want to use their system anyways

raptore39 ,

So I read that the RCS Apple wants to implement isn't exactly the RCS Google is using.

My hope is that once Apple starts using (a hopefully open standard) RCS, then everyone will switch to that and everyone everywhere can communicate securely.

Lifter ,

That's not how Apple works at all. They have had iMessage for a long while now and refuse to open up the technology. They want to monopolize the communications so that they can keep controlling it.

My guess is they are just trying to sabotage any attempts at an open standard.

raptore39 ,

Sadly, you make a good point. They will probably develop their own RCS servers and let others connect to that.

ChillPill ,
@ChillPill@lemmy.world avatar

let others connect to that.

I would be surprised if that happened. As we learned in the Apple v. Epic case (we all suspected before hand but was confirmed) Apple has kept I message closed so that parents wouldn't "buy cheaper android phones for their kids".

poopkins ,

The strategy that has a proven track record, like the currently wildly popular BlackBerry Messenger.

smileyhead ,

everyone everywhere can communicate securely

We can do it right now without the need to please phone operator, device manufacturer and OS developer to add support for a protocol that does not even have E2EE standardized yet.

n3m37h ,

RCS can fuck off IMO

ZMonster ,
@ZMonster@lemmy.world avatar

Lol, unexpected intensity. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

n3m37h ,

MMS is insecure, RCS is MMS on crack.

jetsetdorito ,

begrudgingly leaving a 1 star review about RCS not working

DAMunzy ,

I left my one star.

4.3 stars as of my comment: 2024-03-03T11:31 UTC+00:00

RBWells ,

I have a pixel, it defaults to RCS and those do not reliably deliver to my husband, who is on an android Samsung phone. I can't figure out what the big advantage of RCS is.

Hadriscus ,

Yea, I can't talk to my mom with this either. We both use android

vikingqueef ,
@vikingqueef@lemmy.world avatar

google gonna google.

remember when they used to have "don't be evil" in their company mission statement? i miss that google

bastion ,

I always picture them in a meeting:

Person a: So.. ..looks like in order to get into the Chinese market, we'll have to work with the Chinese government to help them censor certain topics..

Person b: but.. ..our motto.. The optics aren't good on that..

<uncomfortable silence>

Person c: maybe we don't need a motto.

vikingqueef ,
@vikingqueef@lemmy.world avatar

now they are owned by alphabet too which is funny cause it was founded by the guys that founded google and they just restructured google and all its holdings to be under alphabet.

n3m37h ,

Pretty sure they created alphabet and all the other subsidiaries to escape paying taxes.

See alphabet owns things like the G logo, where they then sell a licence to google at crazy high prices to make Googles profit margins seem smaller than they actually are and because Alphabet use Tax havens (Ireland, Isle of mann, Panama, etc) alphabet pays no taxes on that revenue.

vikingqueef ,
@vikingqueef@lemmy.world avatar

Yea I wasn't saying it was a good thing for us or the world even. Its funny because of all the things you just mentioned.

MonkeMischief ,

I remember rooting for their upstart little browser and being excited getting an invite to gmail, and thinking their OS was a cool alternative to the big mega-maniacal Apple stuff...

...now I just feel like my younger self had been taken for such a fool.

rolo ,

android is so much cooler than ios, wow.

KillingTimeItself ,

and yet I get crap about complaining about android and rooting it when this shit literally happens, on the regular.

Im sorry, i want to like android, but it's awful, and genuinely sucks.

this_1_is_mine ,

Wait.... It sucks cause they are actively working to break it. Not because its flawed. Its no different than apples stupid bubbles.

Lifter ,

I think the point is that if it can be sabotaged by a central authority, it sucks. Both Apple and Google suck.

KillingTimeItself ,

IMO, it sucks because it's not built to be the platform that people say it is. It can act as the platform people say it is, on top of it's existing platform, which makes for a pretty messy and unenjoyable experience.

TechNerdWizard42 ,

RCS a decade ago, cool. RCS today? Dead.

WhatsApp is the defacto messaging over data globally. If you live anywhere outside the Murican bubble, SMSs are not used for anything and iMessage isn't even a thing people with iCrap devices care about. Everyone, on every platform, uses WhatsApp. Governmental services, private companies, and all the people use WhatsApp.

The only text messages SMS I get nowadays are from Americans that don't understand anything else and American businesses that use them for 2FA which is super insecure and equally stupid.

pewgar_seemsimandroid ,

i will never use WhatsApp

fruitycoder ,

Do you have any numbers to back this up? My understanding is this is a very eurocentric truth, but I don't actually know the state of messaging apps in Asia, south america, or central and southern Africa.

TechNerdWizard42 ,

Anecdotally it's obvious everywhere you go. I travel all over the world often and it's always WhatsApp. The taxi drivers, the hotel people, everyone.

For actual studies I found a handful with a quick google that confirm it. Whatsapp reported 2 billion users in 2020. And then WeChat is the next which is China centric. Nobody uses standard SMS except Americans.

https://engage.sinch.com/blog/most-popular-messaging-apps-in-the-world/

olbaidiablo ,

Signal?

TechNerdWizard42 ,

I'm not saying what is good to use. I'm saying what is used. Everyone from grandma to the local store. If you want to survive communicating, you need to use WhatsApp everywhere in the world except the idiotic USA.

I personally use other apps like signal and telegram, but I also have WhatsApp because I have to and it is convenient enough. I'm ok that Meta gets a bit of data showing the amazon delivery driver and I shared a message at a certain time. It's useless data.

olbaidiablo ,

I'm trying to get friends into using manyverse myself. I'm trying to get away from corporate owned social media as much as possible, which is why I'm typing this right now on Lemmy.

TechNerdWizard42 ,

You can try but rarely is it successful unless you're a super popular influencer. If Mr. Beast came out with a platform and said use it, he'd get a million users in a day, all of them evangelizing to their friend groups and maybe it would take off. Otherwise you're just going to get ignored unless it's easy enough.

WhatsApp is easy enough and good enough. It is not the best solution, but part of its allure is that it is owned by a big corporation. Governments and billion dollar companies use WhatsApp as their backbone because it is big. They aren't going to roll their own.

And when someone is completely against WhatsApp... Why? If it's because you hate Zuck and Meta, then fine. Personal grudges are fine with me, but not a valid reason to dislike the platform for everyone, just yourself. The data that they get is who you are sending messages to, when, and the overall size. Everything else can be blocked. The content of the messages is secure unless you decrypt and backup elsewhere. One of my WhatsApp numbers is on a number from a VoIP line not even tied to my name or ID in any way. Meta collects information that I am talking to hundreds of delivery drivers arranging my deliveries. I'm ok with that.

They don't have any of my info. I don't have any social media accounts apart from Lemmy and a now retired reddit. Works well enough. And the older people can use it easily enough. Getting my mother to switch to telegram? Isn't happening. But WhatsApp... She's down for that.

olbaidiablo ,

I was just talking about my friend group which is quite small. I don't really want to hear from people outside of that.

jetsetdorito ,

you had me in the first line

but no thanks Facebook app

TechNerdWizard42 ,

Not a defense of Meta, just saying what's used. And if the option is completely insecure SMS or RCS vs WhatsApp, WhatsApp is a clear winner. If you could push everyone to a better app like a signal or telegram, sure. But the world is on WhatsApp. And if you look at how hard it is to get Americans off of SMS or iMessage, that's the issue you have with now 2 billion people minimum to get them to use a better more secure platform. And their perceived benefit for that trouble is near zero.

pkill ,

imagine using an sms app that requires network access

pHr34kY ,

My 6a on GrapheneOS stopped working months ago and I've spent hours trying to figure out what I had changed in an attempt to fix it.

Google broke it at their end? For no reason but spite? What cunts.

Noedel ,

Probably for "security reasons"

n3m37h ,

No, they want people part of their ecosystem (play services) so they can spy on you better. And incase ya forgot RCS could be a potential attack vector as it is more code that can possibly be used for nefarious actors.

MMS can be easily be used this way because of auto retrieval of pictures that have been modified with code that auto runs once downloaded and opened by the messaging app.

lemann ,

On older Android devices vulnerable to Stagefright, malicious code will auto-run as soon as the MMS picture preview is loaded by the system notification shade, if I'm not mistaken

disgrunty ,

Glad to see I'm not the only one! Same phone, same OS, same issue here too.

They are indeed some spiteful ass cunts.

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

What is the benefit of RCS? Ever since it started using that system, I've constantly had to manually change over to SMS because RCS just stops functioning entirely causing messages sent by me to not be sent and messages sent to me don't get pushed to me until I turn RCS off. So from my perspective, RCS fuckin' sucks.

pete_the_cat ,

Essentially it allows for end-to-end encrypted messages and high quality pictures and videos.

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

high quality pictures and videos.

Oooo... So I can send more than a grainy 30 second video now? I mean, when it's working?

dandu3 ,

Yeah. It works well for me and never really had many issues with it. Sometimes it's slow when sending huge videos but that's to be expected

DAMunzy ,

Yeah, but I still get shit quality from iMessage users.

Jimmycakes ,

They are blocking all of mine because I'm not gonna use their shitty text app

darkmogool ,

Stupid question: Why should I care about RCS when I don't use Googles communication services?

MutilationWave ,

Everyone uses SMS in US

Alpha71 ,

Canada too,

Tabooki ,

Most of Canada is RCS. Both major carriers support it

darkmogool ,

Well in Europe, Switzerland especially, allmost nobody uses SMS.

pete_the_cat ,

If you have an Android phone and you're using the default texting app, you are. RCS is built into both the carrier side and device side.

darkmogool ,

Ah... Now i get it. Thank you!

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