Hey there,
In 2 words, all SMS functionality (launching apps, sending, receiving, triggering) seems to be broken in Shelter.
My system
/e/OS version: 1.6
Phone: FP4
I have installed Shelter as a test to see if I feel comfortable having any shady apps on my main phone (banking, non-Signal messenger apps, dating, etc.).
I have cloned or installed the following apps on my Work profile:
- automatically added by Shelter:
- Advanced Privacy (automatically cloned)
- Contacts (automatically cloned)
- Files (automatically cloned)
- microG Services Core (automatically cloned)
- Added by me
- App Lounge
- F-Droid (cloned from main profile)
- Phone (/e/ app cloned from main profile to test basic phone functionality)
- Message (/e/ app cloned from main profile to test default SMS functionality)
- QKSMS (installed through F-Droid to test non-/e/ SMS apps)
- Simple SMS Messenger (cloned from main profile to test non-/e/ SMS apps)
- Hinge (installed from App Lounge to test verification SMS functionality)
Issue
My issue is that no SMS functionality is available in Work profile:
-
When I launch the Message /e/ app, I have a prompt to make it my default SMS app, the
Change
button is blue (active), but not clickable (Screenshot 1) -
When I compose an SMS in the Message /e/ app, the
Send
button is blue (active), but not clickable (Screenshot 2) -
When I exit the composing view, I can select the
Draft
, theDelete
button is active but not clickable (Screenshot 3) -
This is the same for QKSMS (which Message is based on)
-
The Simple SMS Messenger can be installed, but launching it triggers
An unknown error occurred
and the app appears as a black screen (Screenshots 4, 5) -
I cannot set a default SMS app, and no SMS apps seem to be visible to my Work profile (Screenshot 6)
-
I can use the Phone app to call from my Work profile in a way that is isolated from my main Phone app, but trying to
Send a message
to a contact that I have called just opens the main profile’s default SMS app -
I have tried starting an app that requires a verification SMS (Hinge here), but it triggers some weird white screen with 3 bars on top of the app + a notification that microG Services Core is running on top of my apps + an error on the app when I click outside of that white screen. All the settings in Self-Check for microG are ticked. (Screenshots 7, 8, 9)
Screenshots
Posting as a single image to evade the quota on new users.
What I have tried
- I have ensured that I was giving all relevant permissions (phone, SMS, contacts) to the 3 SMS apps I am testing
- I have tried running with/without VPN: same issue
- I have tried re-installing each app, testing each app in isolation (nothing else installed), re-creating Work profiles, and re-installing Shelter multiple times: this has only allowed me to pinpoint the issue to SMS functionality within Shelter
- I have looked through the issues on Shelter’s and Simple SMS Messenger’s repos: nothing relevant
- I have tried running
adb logcat -s AndroidRuntime
to observe the Simple SMS Messenger crash: it’s not being picked up byadb
at all - I have looked for related issues in this forum: nothing
- I have looked for related issues online: nothing
Based on my research, people don’t seem to have an issue sending messages from Shelter in general. They don’t seem to have issues doing that on /e/ either, but my assumption (that comes from a place of powerlessness after hours of testing) is that the cause is closer to the level of /e/ than to the level of Shelter.
Thanks for any help :).