GrapheneOS plans to overhaul the bundled AOSP apps, including messaging with RCS support

The GrapheneOS Foundation, the nonprofit behind the privacy- and security-focused mobile operating system, has announced a sweeping modernization of the apps bundled with its OS, starting with the messaging one. In a post on social media, the organization said it is “well into the process” of converting the messaging app into a modern application, with a new release slated for later featuring a completely overhauled user interface written in Android Compose, alongside what it described as a massive number of additional improvements and bug fixes. The move marks a shift in priorities for the project, which has historically concentrated almost entirely on hardening the base operating system rather than bundled apps for which alternatives exist. The foundation said it has heavily ramped up investment in its bundled apps, recently hired a number of new staff, and intends to keep hiring, with donations enabling further expansion of the team.

More significantly for the long term, GrapheneOS plans to add native support for RCS — the rich messaging standard that has largely superseded SMS — including its standard end-to-end encryption based on the Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol. At present, RCS with E2EE on GrapheneOS is only available through Google Messages, an app the project wants users to eventually avoid needing altogether. The challenge is considerable: GrapheneOS notes that RCS on Android is currently implemented with code spread across the operating system itself, Google Messages, and Google Play Services. The group's plan is to first build an equivalent to the Google Messages component, initially still requiring the OS's sandboxed Google Play Services for RCS activation, before implementing that functionality natively as well. GrapheneOS was candid about the obstacles, observing that RCS “isn't an open platform in practice” and is arguably less open than SMS/MMS, depending heavily on proprietary Google and carrier infrastructure. Its strategy is to replicate Google's approach first, then work toward using carrier services directly where carriers genuinely support them.

The announcement also signals a broader refresh on the horizon for the rest of the apps shipped with the OS. GrapheneOS said it will be overhauling, or in some cases fully replacing, the remaining AOSP-derived apps in the near future, calling out the Gallery app as “incredibly outdated” and slated for complete replacement, with the AOSP Keyboard possibly facing a similar fate. Combined with an expanded team and growing resources, the foundation frames this as a new phase in which app development accelerates in parallel with, rather than in place of, its core work on the base operating system. For a project whose user base prizes independence from Google's ecosystem, the push toward a first-party RCS implementation, with standards-based encryption, could prove one of its most consequential efforts yet, though the path runs squarely through technology dominated by the very company GrapheneOS exists to route around.