Google Duo and Messages may soon work on unverified phones

This story was originally published 2021/01/20
04:50 PSTon January 20, 2021 and last updated 2021/01/22
3:23 PM PSTon 22 January 2021.

Duo and Google Messages is one of the best communication apps Google has ever released, so it’s no surprise that it’s incredibly popular, even among people whose phones are available without Google apps. Unfortunately, it seems like those uncertified phones will soon no longer be able to manage Duo and Messages. XDA developers and 9to5Google have discovered strings revealing that the apps will soon no longer work on devices.

<string name="ip_compliance_warning_message">On March 31, Messages will stop working on uncertified devices, including this one.string>

The message series is as clear as it can get. If Google meets the certification requirement for Messages, users with non-certified phones will soon see the following message in the app: “On March 31st, Messages will stop working on non-certified devices, including this one.” This should affect only a small fraction of Android phones that do not appear with Google apps, such as recent Huawei phones, phones with Chinese ROMs, and of course custom ROMs. XDA developers suspect that the move comes after the RCS end-to-end coding, as the company can not guarantee that an uncertified device will not be compromised.

<string name="grace_period_notification_body">"Because you're using an unsupported device, Duo will unregister your account on this device soon. Download your Clips and call history to avoid losing them."string>

<string name="grace_period_notification_title">Duo is going away soonstring>

Google Duo users with non-certified phones will see a similar message saying, “Because you are using an unsupported device, Duo will soon disable your account on this device. Download your tracks and call history to prevent you from it loses. ” Although these strings do not explicitly mention ‘uncertified’ devices, 9to5Google says that a look at the code reveals that the change is related to ‘GmsCompilance’. GMS is an abbreviation for Google Mobile Services, the package responsible for bringing Google’s core applications and key APIs, including Play Services, to certified phones. Unlike Messages, there is no fixed deadline yet.

If Google goes through the change, people with non-certified phones will soon have to look for other solutions. Maybe Signal can be a good replacement for both – it supports sending and receiving SMS, in addition to the text and video chat service.

The strings first appeared in the Google Messages 7.2 beta and Duo version 123.