Cannot disable SMS in Android messenger [released]

Question

9

Cannot disable SMS in Android messenger [released]

bug

asked 2016-08-10 11:38:51 +0300

cuh7b5

1218 ●15 ●32 ●35

My problem: Since there is no native Facebook messaging (apart from the telepaty-haze implementation which unfortunately does not support group messages) I started using the Android Messenger app. The app works fine, message notifications arrive to my event screen. But SMS messages also appear in the android Messenger app. It is pretty annoying to get duplicate notifications on each of my text messages (one from the Sailfish messages app and one from the android app). I found an option in the android Messenger app to disable sms messages but this is what happens: 1. an android notification appears to "Choose another default SMS app in System Settings to stop sending SMS in Messenger - Go to settings" 2. I click on "Go to settings" and I get an ugly alert box saying: "Unsupported action - That action is not currently supported".

How can I disable getting SMS messages in the Messenger app?

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The question has been closed for the following reason "released in a software update" by cuh7b5
close date 2017-03-30 11:45:58.835204

Comments

1

Why is this a "bug" if you are using a crappy, creepy and pervasive android app where you can't turn off SMS notifications? I'm not sure how to fix that, but a lot of android settings are stored in /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db maybe you can use your favorite sqlite editor etc. and check what the correct setting for android's default SMS app etc. is.

bomo ( 2016-08-10 13:45:57 +0300 )edit

There is no such file on my Jolla C. /data/data only contains a directory called media:

# ls -l /data/data/
drwxrwx--- 2 media media 4096 Jan  1  1970 media

I call it a bug because I am pretty sure that the Messenger app works fine on an android phone, you can turn off sms messges there. But it does not work in the android engine of Sailfish, hence something is wrong with Jolla's aliendalvik. It seems that this default sms app handling is not implemented correctly (or at all) in aliendalvik.

cuh7b5 ( 2016-08-10 14:20:24 +0300 )edit

2

as its an android file, you should look for that in /opt/alien/data/data/.... Turning off the notification is a 'android settings' thing which apparently do not exist in aliendalvik. There no 'not implemented correctly' for these android settings, there is just no GUI to handle those. That's why you have to do it manually.

EDIT: note that the settings is not necessarily stored in the above mentioned DB (it was just a guess), you should also check all other DBs in the /opt/alien/ path...

bomo ( 2016-08-10 14:36:55 +0300 )edit

Why is this a "bug" if you are using a crappy, creepy and pervasive android app where you can't turn off SMS notifications? I'm not sure how to fix that, but a lot of android settings are stored in /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db maybe you can use your favorite sqlite editor etc. and check what the correct setting for android's default SMS app etc. is.
bomo ( 2016-08-10 13:45:57 +0300 )edit
There is no such file on my Jolla C. /data/data only contains a directory called media:
# ls -l /data/data/ drwxrwx--- 2 media media 4096 Jan 1 1970 media
I call it a bug because I am pretty sure that the Messenger app works fine on an android phone, you can turn off sms messges there. But it does not work in the android engine of Sailfish, hence something is wrong with Jolla's aliendalvik. It seems that this default sms app handling is not implemented correctly (or at all) in aliendalvik.
cuh7b5 ( 2016-08-10 14:20:24 +0300 )edit
as its an android file, you should look for that in /opt/alien/data/data/.... Turning off the notification is a 'android settings' thing which apparently do not exist in aliendalvik. There no 'not implemented correctly' for these android settings, there is just no GUI to handle those. That's why you have to do it manually.
EDIT: note that the settings is not necessarily stored in the above mentioned DB (it was just a guess), you should also check all other DBs in the /opt/alien/ path...
bomo ( 2016-08-10 14:36:55 +0300 )edit

Answer 1

5

answered 2016-08-10 15:46:25 +0300

cuh7b5

1218 ●15 ●32 ●35

updated 2016-08-10 15:49:28 +0300

The solution for now:

As root create a backup of the packages.xml file then open it for editing and remove the unneeded permissions. I removed all lines containing "SMS" from the Facebook Messenger's permission section. Like this:

# cp /opt/alien/data/system/packages.xml /opt/alien/data/system/packages.xml_bkp
# vi /opt/alien/data/system/packages.xml

In the editor look for this section and delete the lines containing SMS (the four lines in the <perms> ... </perms> section of the com.facebook.orca (aka Facebook Messenger) package):

...
<package name="com.facebook.orca"... >
...
<perms>
       ...
       <item name="android.permission.WRITE_SMS" />
       ...
       <item name="android.permission.RECEIVE_SMS" />
       ...
       <item name="android.permission.READ_SMS" />
       ...
       <item name="android.permission.SEND_SMS" />
      ...
</perms>
...
</package>
...

I'd rather call this a workaround because an upgrade of the Messenger app will most likely overwrite your settings and you have to do it again.

Thank you @bomo for the help!

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Comments

When going into the permission control direction, you can maybe want to give the SRT AppGuard app a try which tries to do something similar as you want. http://www.srt-appguard.com/en/

bomo ( 2016-08-10 15:49:16 +0300 )edit

And yes, FB Messenger updates always overwrite the modified packages.xml file and SMS are back in Messenger. And there are frequent updates. This command (run as root) will remove the given lines automatically:

# sed -i -e "/<package name=\"com.facebook.orca\"/,/<\/package>/ {/SMS/ d}" /opt/alien/data/system/packages.xml

cuh7b5 ( 2016-09-28 18:02:54 +0300 )edit

Messenger actually started to prevent me from getting the normal notifications of incoming SMS's (and I thought getting double notifications was annoying) until it notifies me of them - which takes anything from few seconds to several hours. So I tried the SRT AppGuard. It seemed to work, at least I got to choose the permissions after it had reinstalled the messenger app. Too bad messenger doesn't work afterwards :D

Now I wholly agree that the Facebook messenger is an intrusive and really crappy app, but sometimes it just makes things so much easier to be able to use it on your phone. I really miss the times when Facebook chat was integrated into the message app and not trying to hijack it.

Pände ( 2016-10-27 15:26:28 +0300 )edit

Accepted Answer

2

answered 2017-03-30 11:45:42 +0300

cuh7b5

1218 ●15 ●32 ●35

Solved in 2.1.0.10. Thanks Jolla!

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Cannot disable SMS in Android messenger [released]

The question has been closed for the following reason "released in a software update" by cuh7b5
close date 2017-03-30 11:45:58.835204

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Cannot disable SMS in Android messenger [released]

The question has been closed for the following reason "released in a software update" by cuh7b5 close date 2017-03-30 11:45:58.835204

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The question has been closed for the following reason "released in a software update" by cuh7b5
close date 2017-03-30 11:45:58.835204