Google Duo and Messaging may soon stop working on non-certified phones

This story was originally published 1/20/20
4:50 am PSTon January 20, 2021 and last update 2021/01/22
3:23 AM PSTon January 22, 2021.

Duo and Google Messaging are among the best communication apps that Google has ever launched, so it’s no surprise that they are incredibly popular even among people whose phones are provided without Google apps. Unfortunately, it appears that soon these non-certified phones will no longer be able to run Duo and Messages. XDA Developers and 9to5Google have discovered strings that reveal that applications will soon stop working on unsupported devices.

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

The string Messages is as clear as possible. If Google meets the certification requirement for Messaging, users with non-certified phones will soon see the following message in the app: “On March 31, Messaging will stop working on non-certified devices, including this one.” This should affect only a small fraction of Android phones that don’t come with Google apps, like recent Huawei phones, phones with Chinese ROMs and, of course, custom ROMs. XDA developers suspect that the change comes after the end-to-end RCS encryption is implemented, as the company cannot 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: “Since you are using an unsupported device, Duo will unregister your account on this device soon. Download your clips and call history to avoid losing them. ” Even though these strings do not explicitly mention “non-certified” 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 major Google applications and important APIs, including Play Services, to certified phones. Unlike Messages, there is still no set deadline.

If Google accepts the change, people with non-certified phones will soon have to look for other solutions. Perhaps Signal can be a good substitute for both – it offers support for sending and receiving SMS, in addition to its text and video chat service.

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