Credit: Ryan-Thomas Shaw / Android Government
- Code snippets found by XDA Developers suggests that Google Messages will not support unverified Android devices after March 31, 2021.
- Uncertified devices are the Android devices that Google has not officially cleaned up to access its mobile services.
- Since May 2019, new Huawei devices have fallen into the category.
Google Messages may soon stop working with uncertified Android phones, including those made by Huawei. New snippets of code found by XDA Developers in version 7.7.203 of the app it is suggested that the app cannot support devices which it did not officially certify on 31 March 2021 to operate Google Mobile Services (GMS).
Related: Everything you need to know about RCS messages
Huawei agreed to migrate its users to Messages in 2018 when Google tried to build a critical mass of RCS adoption. However, when the US government placed the company on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List in 2019, Google could no longer work with Huawei. Since then, new Huawei devices have been shipped without any Google-made apps, including Messages. But that does not mean that people could not circumvent the ban. Messaging is one of the few first-party apps that you can easily upload to phones that do not have access to GMS, since you do not need a Google Account to use it. That will not be the case later this year.
XDA suggests that the upcoming restriction is likely to be linked to the fact that messages will support end-to-end encryption. If Google were to continue to allow unauthorized device permissions to run messages, it would be difficult for the business to ensure that conversations with unverified devices are not compromised. The feature is currently in beta, but an official implementation could begin sometime this year.
If you are currently using Google Messages on an uncertified device, consider checking one of these options before the cut-off date.