Joyn app and joyn service showing me messages

mastershake · April 19, 2021, 6:44pm

what is this and why is it installed? it cant be disabled no removed. ill never use this and would like to either disable it or remove it fully from the 2e rom. she is running the new beta rom is that why? if so will it be removed from the final one. i set it to not notify but it still is and its annoying. first it says joyn is turned off then it says joyn service is stopped ims registered.

edit: just checked and this is NOT included in the release version of the rom. will this hopefully be removed when the rom goes final. its even allowed to modify system settings which i disable and then after a while i get a pop up and then when checked its turned back on.

Sharad · April 20, 2021, 4:07am

Checking with ODM on this. Quick inspection shows an official mediatek app for RCS messaging. Will confirm soon.

mastershake · April 20, 2021, 6:13pm

its very annoying when you go to make a call it wants permission for your contacts which i will not give it because its something i will not use and its not on the previous rom

edd.purcell · July 23, 2021, 1:54am

Any update on this and why it doesn’t show up in the list of installed apps? I’m not particularly excited at the idea of apps I can’t disable, let alone find, popping up without myself explicitly asking it to open.

Sharad · July 23, 2021, 4:47am

joyn is a mediatek system app (com.mediatek.rcs) that got included to support RCS messaging. We are looking into the issue and whether it can be safely removed in the next build.

redearthman74 · August 21, 2021, 9:11am

I’ve joined the community forum specifically because of this. This is the first thing since I bought my Teracube that I’ve been unhappy with. I do my level best not to have apps on my phone that I don’t want there and I never invited Joyn nor want it.
Thanks for following this up, Sharad.

James_Lively · August 30, 2021, 8:34pm

Yes, just updated Terracube 2e yesterday. First call I make, Joyn app wants permissions. Hell no, if I don’t know what it is. Tell Mediatek its bloatware is not wanted and to remove it. How does the app support RCS messaging?

James_Lively · August 30, 2021, 8:53pm

Actually, not please with this device. If I could get my money back, I would. The camera is shitty (blue with flash), apps keep opening without prompt, icons move on the home pages on their own. And now you push an update that has software that no one wants or asked for.

wdudley2 · September 4, 2021, 2:41pm

How do I remove or disable “Joyn”. I don’t want it, and it is annoying me with requests for access to my contacts. Putting non-deletable bloatware in the ROM is not cool.

FalconFour · September 6, 2021, 7:00am

I’ve seen Joyn as well, no idea what it is, but I care very little about junk OEM apps. It bothered me once, now it’s a distant memory.

The problem is that the app is weirdly named, and offers no insight as to why it’s presenting itself and asking for permissions. Bad UI leads to outrage like this.

Have it give an introduction of some kind before asking for intrusive permissions at inopportune times. If it actually serves a purpose we want, it’ll be welcomed. If not, it should be removable.

Patrick_Larkin · September 10, 2021, 8:34pm

I don’t even know what RCS is, nor do I want it. I went into the joyn app (from Notifications) and turned off the “Master Switch”. Now, a notification remains “joyn service is stopped”, and if I slide right to adjust notifications, it says “These notifications can’t be modified”.

Seems I’m stuck with a notification about ‘joyn’ either way. But what am I missing if I leave it disabled (aside from RCS, whatever the heck that is)?

ETA: a bit of digging and I find it’s an upgrade to SMS… I enabled it in Google Messages when I got the phone. It’s still enabled. But have no idea whether it works or not.

DrChris · September 13, 2021, 9:18pm

Just wanted to add my support to this discussion. Kinda creepy when an app appears and asks for access to your contacts but then you can’t find the app to uninstall it!

In my case it appeared after the latest update, after I sent a smiley-face in the SMS app.

Thanks for your support and explanations Sharad, turns out removing this app “in the latest build” hasn’t worked out! I’d feel better if you could explicitly confirm that it is safe. Also FalconFour I entirely agree with your assessment.

Sharad · September 14, 2021, 4:13am

Yes - this is a app created by Mediatek (com.mediatek.joyn) like some other components running in our phone (for example cellular drivers, etc). However I agree - they could have done a better job in its interactions and permissions.

redearthman74 · September 30, 2021, 9:18am

It would be really great if we could get rid of this Joyn thing - it has started again to pop up when I’m sending text messages and when I’m sliding between apps, from Phone to Gmail to Messaging. I’m not interested in having it on my phone and would love to at least have the choice to opt-out.
Honestly this kind of bloatware is what I expect from phone provided by telco companies. It’s why I wanted to get away from those handsets and a big part of why I joined with Teracube to get the 2e.
If I wanted to chat, I’d be using a chat app, not an SMS messaging app. I’m not interested in having one thing that does everything and every time a bulk SMS text that I try to send out accidentally turns into some kind of massive group chat, it makes me want to stick knitting needles in my eyes.
Please let’s just keep things simple, eh?

Valentine · October 2, 2021, 12:08pm

A Google search shows that in theory it’s possible to remove it, but if that’ll be done in a future build I may just wait it out.

IMRE · November 12, 2021, 12:57pm

Joyn pushed me away from Teracube. I love what Teracube means to me, an attempt at responsible sustainability, a step toward infinite, modular, upgradability.

But, Joyn feels like Malware. I did not ask for it, did not need it, don’t want it and can’t get rid of it. And, it interrupts the flow of my productivity. It feels like Joyn was injected into Teracube by an Industrial Sabotage Agent. What’s to love?

I bought a used Apple Iphone7 from a friend (the Iphone feels like alien tech rather than my familiar Android assistant) to avoid Joyn.

Saar · November 12, 2021, 11:05pm

I couldn’t agree more with IMRE. I bought the terracube about 6 months ago on the recommendation of a friend. Wife and a few other friends were in need of new phones this year. I’ve gone from recommending Terracube (for much the same reasons as already mentioned) to telling them to stay away from it because of this. Seriously, how is it so hard to fix? I get it is from a third party app but this is just unacceptable. Every time I take a phone call or make one, I need to spend a few minutes closing joyn repeatedly, over and over and over again before it finally goes away until the next time I need to use my phone as a phone. It makes the phone unuseable for what I would call its primary purpose.

Frontpage32 · November 15, 2021, 1:36am

Every time I try to use contacts this pops up. I have loved my teracube phones this is pure malware/bloatware. A bit surprised it’s on a teracube phone.

Ok so once I installed the google contacts app I went to and removed the contacts app permissions that came with the phone and also removed it’s right to modify settings. It can’t be removed but it has basically been caged and can’t do anything. Ugh seems all the companies are becoming more and more ugly with the garbage. If you want Joyn it can be downloaded. I know it’s not teracube but wow.

Sharad · November 17, 2021, 1:50am

Hi @Saar and @IMRE - I can understand your frustration. While we are going clean in our Android 11 build, @Frontpage32 found a solution to suppress Joyn for Android 10. (read his post here)

Basically

Goto Settings > Apps & notifications > search for contacts (this is the built-in contacts app)
Remove all its permissions by tapping individual permissions
Install “Google contacts” from play store

Stolar · April 6, 2022, 9:31am

I started getting notifications to enable Joyn and I did. Subsequently all my contacts saves to device storage disappeared. Before anyone yells at me, I did not have synced to Google. I did not have Google Contacts app installed prior to this issue.

Can anyone explain what happened?
Is there any way to recover?

I’ve done a search in Files for both VCF and Contacts as search terms. I originally imported my contacts into Teracube with a VCF file from old phone and there is no trace of it in either Device storage or SD storge. Search for Contacts showed one folder in Device storage with Mediatek in file name but the folder was empty of data.

I submitted a service ticket at the time and response simply pointed me back to forum posts related to Joyn.

What is the difference between built-in Contacts app and Google Contacts app. It seems like with next software update built-in Contacts app will be removed?

Similar to another person’s post, not eager to share my contact info with Google.