Google Messages will finally tell you when your custom ROM is the problem (APK teardown)

Android Authority

4 days ago

Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority
TL;DR Last year, Google began preventing devices that failed Play Integrity checks from sending RCS messages.
Google Messages would simply drop texts, without delivering any errors or warnings.
Messages now appears to be adding an explicit notice when security requirements are not met.
What's more annoying than when an app stops working? Well — a lot of things, actually — but in this narrow context we're specifically talking about when an app intentionally stops working, but won't clearly communicate why that is. RCS support coming to Google Messages was a major step forward, not just for messaging on Android, but between users across platforms, as well. Last year, we identified an issue with RCS in Google Messages where your texts wouldn't go through, but the app wouldn't tell you why. And now it's looking like Google might finally be ready to do something about that.
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The problem that we spotted back then affected Google Messages users that had rooted their phones or were using custom ROMs — basically, doing anything that would cause their device to fail Play Integrity API attestation checks. If Messages detected that it was running on device like that, RCS messages would just vanish as you tried to send them — no error, no falling back to regular SMS, nothing.
We reached out to Google at the time, and the company described this measure as one undertaken to limit the potential for bad actors abusing RCS, using modified phones to send spam messages and the like. In that light, the way RCS was silently failing at least made a degree of sense — like shadow banning an account, it can be strategic to withhold information from an adversary. But innocent Android enthusiasts just ended up finding themselves caught in that crossfire, and left without a clear indication why.
Fast-forward to now, and Messages seems to be getting ready to actually tell those rooted users what its big problem is. Looking through Google's recent messages.android_20250730_00_RC00.phone_samsung_openbeta_dynamic release of Messages, we've identified a new text string:
Code Copy Text Your device does not meet security requirements
This is a string that, once the app starts using it, should display in Messages RCS settings where you're able to toggle on RCS and view its status — the same place we're expecting the app to add that new Details button. Between the two of them, it feels that Google's explicitly trying to improve its communication with users when it comes to RCS issues.
Apps like Wallet already just out and tell you when your rooted phone is why it refuses to work, so it's not like this represents a major policy shift for Google — we're just happy to see the side of more information slowly starting to win out. At this point, we can't imagine any serious spammers would gain anything from continued silence, and hopefully when this finally rolls out we'll have fewer custom ROM fans scratching their heads about vanishing messages.
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