i treated myself with a Fairphone and a switch from iOS to iode this Holiday Season. Everything worked this far and im quite happy. But WhatsApp refuses to work when signing up. I know all the reasons not to use that App and this is another one, but its simply not possible for me to uninstall it on my daily driver.
When entering my Phonenumber the app wants to verify it by sending a 6 digit code to my old phone (to the whatsapp installation). After 2-3 seconds it aborts and displays the following:
I’ve relocked the bootloader, disabled OEM unlocking, disabled iodeBlocker disabled developer options all together, reinstalled whatsapp, tried with the SIM in the Fairphone (it should not need to verify when the sim is presend, but still same error), tried older whatsapp versions from Aurora and the plain APK download linked: Download WhatsApp for Android
I am passing all microG SafetyNet checks in Settings > system > microG > Google SafetyNet
Please help me or ask needed imformation about my setup. I cannot use the new Phone without WhatsApp and my old Phone (jailbroken iOS 13) siezes to work in March.
Thanks in Advance.
you might want to try installing an older version of whatsapp. Is this only related to new installs? neither I on iodé 4.7 (wa v. 2.24.23.78) nor my partner on latest GrapheneOS (wa v. 2.24.25.77) have had problems with whatsapp, and both of us are on the latest version.
one workaraound might be just to leave the iphone at home with the whatsapp account on and access through the web app or a third party app until there is a less restrictive version or a workaround. millions of people are probably using WA on phones with similar issues.
There won’t be millions of users using custom ROMs, GSIs or GOS. And Meta won’t give a damn about them, even though there will be many.
My prediction for the future:
This is all just the beginning of Play integrity check. WA has started it, Revolut has started it and many (banks, health insurance companies, brokers, …) will follow.
It will be a tough time for unverified Android ROMs.
Either there will be a workaround, or the air will get thin.
Sad but True
i have tried some old versions, but bnit many. could you provide the “version codes” for your installations so I can get them through Aurora? other then that I don’t know how to install a specific version.
Thanks a lot for your input
The reality is that a privacy OS and WA are complete polar-opposites when it comes to what each wants to achieve. After reading the other thread (the slightly heated one) this AM, I went out and just searched a bit out of curiosity. The combination is very hit and miss… and one response on the WA forums made me chuckle… the user said (summary)
“why don’t you all just run a standard version of Android like the rest of us so we can quit talking abouyt this…”
I’ll guess you’ll have to decide for yourself, because it sounds like you’ll be doing a lot of babysitting of that setup.
I actually do have a update for you all.
Just before wiping my iode installation I enterd my moms phonenumber for shits and giggles BUT it actually worked without problems. So
The Error thrown is specific to my WA Account and/or my old phone. I’ve got yet to test if its even dependent of the iode/new phone.
This means:
I could setup WhatsApp with a new SIM and then do some account transfer shenanigans.
OR I could annoy the hell out of them when the weekend is over to unban/unrestict my account.
And that’s what I’m gonna do.
Still it could be, that my old phone (jailbroken iOS 13) just triggers more in depth checks which my iode phone then fails
I tested WA in an old Samsung Stock phone. It works with my old WA Account while passing all the checks my iode phone is passing, in addition to “MEETS_DEVICE_Integrity”
So my interpretation:
My Phonenumber or old phone got flagged as shady.
When transferring my account, this “shadyness” flag triggers a check of “Device_integrity” which fails due to a custom ROM being installed.
With this interpenetration the best option seams to be a new SIM but that remains risky. Calling them will be safer, but honestly quite surprising if that would work.
I wouldn’t sign that.
You can be completely naked, completely covered up, but also a lot in between.
There is always 99% between 0 and 100
It doesn’t always have to be black or white. There are 64 shades of grey
The fact that you don’t sign off on it… well… that’s probably not going to keep me awake at night. I guess we should all do as the guy in the WhatsApp forum said…
“just run the regular Android so we can all quit talking about it” LOL
Actually, WA’s privacy concerns have been a pretty well documented topic for a while, and especially after their TOU changes in ‘21’. Now, if one has looked into it, and now with the addition of AI, with any sort of depth, and just pondered it’s abilities, accesses, and controls, then one could agree that the future of privacy is just going to get even more interesting. Here is a blog post I came across not too long ago… just good stuff to think about.
But for now I’ll modify my original message… Many, including myself, would agree the reality is that a privacy OS and WA (and many other apps) are complete polar-opposites when it comes to what each wants to achieve.
Some updates, hopefully some dev thinks this is helpfull.
Ive tested e/OS and CalyxOS and got the same error (unlocked bootloader tho).
Im now on the FairphoneOS but still waiting for SPL updates to relock my bootloader. This results in the Play Integrity / SafetyNet being even worse. Play Integrity still just passes “basic” and YASNAC fails on “CTS”.
So Whatsapp should not work right? Wrong, it works even with my flagged phonenumber. I doubt that any “unban” happend in the last 6h.
So the issue with Whatsapp is i guess a result of microG? but the Graphene folks use sandboxed gsm and ran into the same issue.
(sorry for my bad grammar, im kinda sleepdeprived)
I am willing to test more stuff till the next fairphoneOS update comes along and i can relock my bootloader.
cheers
a workaround might be to use an older device, leave it at home and then use WA via the web interface or a third party app that accesses Whatsapp web. Nice thing about this setup is it prevents meta from accessing your contacts, and you don´t have to use your main num-ber with Meta.
If you can’t do without such apps, I would at least install them in an isolated area.
“Shelter” would be such an app for that.
That way you don’t have to switch profiles…
A VPN in this isolated area would certainly not be a bad idea either.
I’ve been struggling with that. I previously used LineageOS for microg and had the same problem.
The workaround for me was installing WhatsApp on a stock Android phone (in my case it was my mom’s phone. I use Shelter and locked it using a pattern to prevent my mom from accessing my messages ) and log into my account. Then use WhatsApp Web To Go on my main phone and sync it with my account.
This allowed me to at least use WhatsApp on my main phone even though without any notifications (so I had to check every now and then) and had to resync every 2 weeks or so.
Hopefully, EU antitrust verdicts against monopolist practices like safetynet will protect users of custom ROMs. In the meantime, people will have to do such digital gymnastics. keep us posted of your workarounds, hopefully all of us can find something that works.
MEETS_DEVICE_INTEGRITY
MEETS_BASIC_INTEGRITY
) and log into my account. Then use WhatsApp Web To Go on my main phone and sync it with my account.