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GrapheneOS
Optional toggle to allow Play Services to access certain hardware identifiers to properly enable RCS support
There is a forum thread with a staggering 435 posts spanning over 2 years discussing how to get RCS working on GrapheneOS. People resort to hacky workarounds which are not reliable and usually disconnect RCS after a while such as using shizuku which is not recommended by the GrapheneOS team.
An optional toggle that allows Play Services to access hardware identifiers will allow users to properly enable RCS without resorting to any workarounds but with a privacy cost.
I wouldn't mention the steps here publicly so people do not get any ideas an follow them, effectively reducing their security. A similar comment talking about this was removed due to this reason. It would be best if you deleted your comment.
Is the purpose of this issue to raise awareness, or for a solution?
It's a feature request for the solution (which is listed in the title).
It should be noted that Google Messages is only one implementation of RCS (although admittedly the most used one). Some carriers have offered their own RCS services, which I believe is more in-line with what the GSMA intended. Some have already begun to phase these out in favor of Google's implementation, but perhaps this will change now that Apple is adopting the standard. Either way, being able to use RCS without Google Play would be good for the users who don't wish to install that.
@ZLima12 The OS already supports RCS and nothing special should be required for another app that's not Google Messages. Google Messages only causes a problem because it expects Play services to have the special access given to an active SMS app too, which isn't how things work with sandboxed Google Play where they're regular apps.
Does the default messaging app support it, or are there any other alternative messaging apps which do?
The default messaging app doesn't. We don't know if there are any non-device-specific alternatives to Google Messages available with RCS but they should work if they exist, similarly to how Google Messages does work with RCS support when it has this access granted to Play services, but other apps should need the Play services integration.
but other apps should need the Play services integration
Hmm, that's not ideal. Do RCS clients need to be explicitly approved by Google or carriers? (Please forgive my lack of RCS knowledge.)