Android smartphone users found themselves unable to send RCS messages overnight, for no apparent reason. However, they all share one thing in common.
For years, a war rages between Google and Apple. Well, there are actually several, but the one that interests us here concerns the messaging technologies on smartphones. We are of course talking about the famous opposition between green bubbles and blue bubblesor between the RCS protocol and iMessage. As a reminder, if you receive a message on your Android smartphone and it comes from iMessage on iPhone, it will use the SMS protocol. No encryption, reactions or group conversations possible therefore.
Google has never hidden its desire to see Apple adopt RCS. With a lot of parody video or even giant advertising displays, the firm is pushing Apple to #GetTheMessage (understand the message, a hashtag created for the occasion). It is finally the European digital law (DSA) which forces Apple to adopt RCS in 2024. A victory for Google which, ironically, is in the process of deprive some of its users of the messaging protocol so ardently defended.
RCS messages no longer work on your Android smartphone? You are not the only one
On the community social network Reddit, several people report a problem with their Android mobile: they can no longer send RCS messages. It happened overnight, for no apparent reason. But looking closer, we see that there is one thing in common between all these users. Either their device is rootedeither the bootloader is unlockedeither they installed a custom Rom. The phenomenon affects those who have carried out one or more of these manipulations.
Read also – Google Messages should soon activate RCS for all your numbers on dual SIM
This seems to come from Google adding a safety system called SafetyNet to the Messages app. He verifies if the system has been modified in any way and if it’s the case, blocks features like here the RCS. All under the cover ofensure data security. This is also what prevents us from usingbanking apps on a rooted mobile for example. The only current way to bypass blocking of RCS messages is to install a specific Magisk module, a process known to people involved in rooting. There’s no guarantee, however, that Google won’t find a way to prevent it from working.