GrapheneOS' rewritten Messages app is released

LoganDark

That was really fast, they only announced it like a day or two ago IIRC? Also: no screenshots of the redesigned interface?!

mewse-hn

Does it do RCS?

mmooss

With a seemingly insurmountable workload - maintain an actually secure OS fork - for a small team, I wonder how GrapheneOS prioritizes things like messaging apps? I'm not saying it's wrong at all; I am just interested in the thinking inside a project like that. I can imagine many reasons to devote resources to it: * A platform is only as good as its apps. If they want to grow GOS in the general public, it requires a good SMS/MMS messaging app. * LLM tools greatly reduce development costs, especially for well-known functions like text messaging. * Without secure messaging (as far as SMS/MMS can be secure), the platform security is greatly reduced. * GOS got a big donation, or has a volunteer that wants to do messaging ... But idk what I'm talking about. What is their approach?

cloudie78

How about some screenshots?

gib444

Looks prettier but a shame an obvious regression happened for one of my primary use-cases: copying one-time codes. Long pressing on a link selects the entire SMS instead of bringing up a menu for the link. [0] Makes me wonder about all the testing now And the issue worded/tagged as a feature instead of a regression. Are the devs aware the feature existed before? later : It's doubly disappointing because just 4 days ago the project wrote [1], on using AI for the new Messaging app: "it's also helping us raise our standards for our own work by pointing it at that to get extremely pedantic criticism catching many things we would miss...We've hired multiple experienced app developers who have spent months working on modernizing the Messaging app and carefully reviewing it" [0] https://github.com/GrapheneOS/Messaging/issues/292 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49592770

Maskawanian

Does anyone know if this is something that we can install now, or if it will show up in the next OS release?

lollobomb

Now, can we please get the long-awaited full system backup feature? We pay you for a reason! (sarcasm obvious, but indeed full system backup is sorely missing. Seedvault is crap, not an option)

preisschild

I had a scary bug on an older version where for months the contact names didnt match the actual senders/recipients. I have received SMS from my WISP under the same contact as Github MFA codes but also send mssages to relatives that never where received...

mvdtnz

Wake me up when I don't need to ship hundreds of dollars to Google to use this OS.

I_am_tiberius

Everytime I read GrapheneOS news I search for news related to Fairephone. It's such a shame that there's still no official plan for Fairephone to work on requirements for GrapheneOS. The combination of those 2 would be fantastic. It would also open a big new market (I assume) for Fairephone so not sure why there seems no clear sign in that direction at all (to my knowledge).

module1973

Would have been cool to have encrypted SMS messages like the SMSecure app while we wait for RCS

mrd3v0

I wish they prioritised the call app. It is beyond appalling. You can't even determine when a call happened, beyond the generic low fidelity "[time] ago". It also almost feels like tapping anything makes me accidentally call people. Abhorrent UI/UX to be completely honest.

andrepd

Seeing "Material 3/Material You" is a negative point for me, not a positive. It's almost comical just how atrocious the UI is. Yes let's make all phones 20% huge-er and all whitespace 40% wider, said no sane person ever.

jcul

Where I live, an sms app is not very important. It's almost exclusively used for two factor authentication messages. Everyone uses WhatsApp, signal, telegram etc, even businesses and services. So having a bare bones aosp messaging app was never an issue for me. Having said that, I find fossify messages pretty good. Will try out the new GOS app too.

beepbooptheory

The biggest issue I have with the degoogled Androids is no RCS chats out of the box. At least for me, it stinks these days to not have it, and you're forced to do sneaky things to get it.

Evidlo

Some screenshots since the repo doesn't have any for whatever reason: https://imgur.com/a/C8yV83v

DeepDyno

One feature I just found out about after trying it is that you can text email addresses. Unfortunately I think that feature is shutting down. https://www.verizon.com/support/vtext-vzwpix-shutdown/ I'm still waiting until RCS is supported before I actually use it.