Hello! I recently purchased a pixel 10 and installed grapheneOS on it and so far everything has been great. The only issue I am having is what I stated in the title. When I think I have the correct permissions and try to send a text through Android auto, the assistant responds with “sorry, who are you trying to message?” as if I can’t parse the name spoken to a contact. It does have contact permissions as does the google app. The only other thing I can think is that I am using the Fossify contacts app for contacts and I know that in some cases there is a difference between apps installed via the google play store vs elsewhere. Thanks

  • DahGangalang@infosec.pub
    2·
    11 days ago

    Don’t have a definite solve, but did some research you might find helpful.

    It looks like Fossify Contacts (and most privacy respecting contact apps) maintain a separate database of contacts from your phone’s “true” contact database. This means the app occasionally needs to sync up with that “true” database.

    My research seems to be pointing to GrapheneOS as a whole having a current recent issue with syncing that “true” database with a bunch of apps. This Github Issue appears to have resolved it (though I didn’t read all of the comments on it), so unclear what else needs to be done.

    I finally got Android Auto setup on my phone yesterday (it was a RTFM issue), so your post caught my eye. I don’t see myself having time to do a lot of testing to support finding your fix, but I’mma try this with a couple of contacts apps over the next day or so and see if it isn’t just a “use a different app” solution.

    In the mean time, hope you have good luck finding a solve!

    Edit: My Clanker Assistant suggested this:

    Add your Google account if not already done:

    • Go to Settings > Passwords & accounts > Add account > Google
    • Sign in (this uses GrapheneOS’s sandboxed Play services, so it’s contained).
    • Enable sync for Contacts.
    • Gibberish1804@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      11 days ago

      I’ll take a look at that issue and give the assistant suggestion a try as that was sort of my suspicion. It may also be worth noting that I sync my contacts with a self-hosted Nextcloud instance via DAVx5. Been trying to get away having Google by my backup for anything. I also do already have a Google account on here for the Gmail I do use.

      I suppose at the end of the day if this is the one thing i can’t get working, then I would say 99% of my phone use has been covered. Still a success in my eyes.

      • DahGangalang@infosec.pub
        2·
        11 days ago

        I expect the NextCloud bit may be playing games a part in all this too.

        But next question in my mind: when you recv a message while hooked up to Android Auto on your car, does their contact show up then? Sounds like it does, but just want to be sure.

        If Auto can read the incoming number and associate it with the contact, then that should say its not a “Android auto doesn’t have access to the proper database issue”.

        Side note: Lol, I’m getting usually bought into your issue. I think its because I’ve found something that’s always been a black box to me and this is an opportunity to learn. In any case, I use Fossify for my main contacts app. Its been…fine…so haven’t bothered looking for a better solve and so also hoping this research helps me too, I think.

        • Gibberish1804@lemmy.worldOP
          2·
          11 days ago

          No actually it does not. But I also realized that I do not have SMS permission enabled for Android auto. I did at one point, but I also got frustrated at one point and wiped out Auto, Google, whatever other dependent apps to try and start over.

          It’s just a tad annoying to try something because I have to go from my computer where I am doing the research, over to my car, turn it on, connect my phone, etc… in order to try anything.

          Edit: Interestingly, even though I had Gmail installed, my google account was NOT in the listed accounts on the phone. I’ve since added it, but that didn’t help the situation any. I also don’t seem to have an option to sync contacts in there. I have also tried installing Google’s contact app for good measure and still nothing.

          Edit Edit: I have in the past gotten the response “Oops something went wrong” (that the github issue mentions) from the voice assistant, but that has cleared up after adding certain permissions (I don’t remember which ones).

  • Gibberish1804@lemmy.worldOP
    1·
    10 days ago

    So just to keep documenting what I’ve been doing… I blanket assigned all permissions to Android auto and dependency apps and that still did not resolve the issue, so it is probably safe to say that it is something with the way I’m handling contacts. I just don’t know how to correct it.

    I did find one Android setting that I thought would do it called “contact storage”, that was not set, that had options to pick certain accounts or “device only”. I played around with different selections in there and it did not solve the issue.

    At this point I’m sort of out of ideas as I don’t think I’m willing to let google be the source of truth for my contacts if it so happens to be one of the apps in the Android auto chain looking for google contacts specifically.

    Oh well. As I said in my original post, if that is the one thing I’m doing to have to live without then so be it suppose.

    Edit: Thanks for the ideas DahGangalang