[Android General] Sass86oh:
Activate Project Fi account from an unsupported device (Successfully Accomplished)

**Although I accomplished this on a OP5T, there is no reason why the steps below should not work on just about any other Android device that is GSM based and capable accessing T-Mobile towers for cell service. The Fi app controls the whole procedure, it is what activates everything as well as sets the proper settings for MMS and VVM. As long as the Fi app believes the device it's installed on is one of the officially supported Fi devices then it will proceed with the activation of a new sim card**

Project Fi is (in my opinion) the best mobile provider in the US at the moment. It has great service, a radical approach to data costs which no other carrier offers at the moment (you pay exactly for what you use, nothing more nothing less), an unlimited everything plan for $80 but only if you consume 6GB+ of data in a bill cycle. If the next moth you only use 2GB of data then your bill is $40 (so you don't have to pay 80 every month just to have peace of mind. All data is charged at $10 per gig. Anything after 6GB of data in a bill cycle is free. The most you'll ever be charged in a particular month is $80 (20 for unli talk and text, 60 for 6GB of data if youve used that much). You also get access to data only sims which you can use in any other GSM devices and share the data attached to your account. Tethering is free and unlimited as well. I mean you can't beat it. However its only officially supported on 5 devices total and while you can start service and order a sim which can work in other GSM T-Mobile compatible devices, you must first activate the sim card inside an official device in order for your service to begin. Most people don't have one of those devices but they might want to use the service still. Well here's how you can....

I've been experimenting with activating service on a phone that's not officially supported and I am here to tell you that I've successfully managed to do so using a OnePlus 5T which is not an officially supported Fi device. The process was insanely simple and I've actually wondered from day one whether or not the process I accomplished this with would work, but I figured it was too simple for Google to not have considered and so I never attempted it. This was literally the final attempt I was going to make on this and it worked flawlessly.

STEP 1

Root your phone, go /system and edit the build.prop.... (/system means the "system" folder in the root partition, known as "/")

Change the following entries to what I have indicated, (you're only editing the words after the "=" sign)

Each entry below will say something different following the "=" sign depending on which phone you happen to be using... Everything to the left of the "=" sign should be universal across all Android devices...

So if you have a OnePlus 5 for example, then you will initially see "ro.product.model=OnePlus 5" and "ro.product.name=cheeseburger" you'll only change "OnePlus 5" and "cheeseburger" to match what I have written below....

***THESE OPTIONS ARE CASE SENSITIVE!! SO IF YOU WRITE "Taimen" INSTEAD OF "taimen" THEN IT WILL NOT WORK***

ro.product.model=Pixel 2 XL

ro.product.brand=Google

ro.product.name=taimen

ro.product.device=taimen

ro.product.manufacturer=Google

ro.build.product=taimen

ADD THE FOLLOWING ENTRY TO THE BOTTOM OF YOUR BUILD.PROP (the complete line, not just "true")

ro.opa.eligible_device=true

STEP 2

Save the new options added to build.prop and REBOOT YOUR PHONE BEFORE PROCEEDING! If you did everything correctly, then after a reboot when you go to "system" and then "about" you should see the device info reporting that your phone is a "Pixel 2 XL". This is how we are managing the activation, because the Project Fi app will check the device info when you open it the first time and based on the info it sees, it will either treat the phone as an official device, or one that's using a data only sim (which can not activate Project Fi account). Data only devices are restricted in that LTE speeds are reduced substantially, VVM does not work, it's possible to call and text with a few tweaks but MMS will not work outside of the Hangouts app. Official devices have no restrictions. As long as it believes the device is official, it will allow the activation to proceed regardless of the device you're using.

STEP 3

(For the next part:

DO NOT GRANT PERMISSIONS TO PROJECT FI APP UNTIL AFTER YOU'VE OPENED THE APP AND ACTIVATED THE SERVICE!! Upon completing this task you can then grant the necessary permissions to Project Fi app. If you have already granted permissions then clear app data for Project Fi app, uninstall, reinstall and follow my directions)

Download "Project Fi" app and insert the sim you ordered from Google. Open Fi app and choose the correct account (if theres more than one google account signed in on your device) and if you've done everything correctly then the service will activate. I've done this successfully on 3 different devices already.

Once you've completed this you can then revert all changes to the build.prop back to original settings and your account will be activated and the sim can be used in any GSM device compatible with T-Mobile's network from then on.

FYI:

If you want to be able to send mms messages from any text app besides Hangouts and have visual voicemail working as well then you should leave the build.prop the way it is after adding in the Pixel info. All services (except for network transitioning, you'll be limited to T-Mobiles service which is amazing in most areas anyway) will function properly when the device is seen as being a Pixel 2 XL. If you revert the build.prop back to stock following the initial activation of your sim card the you will lose visual vm, mms messaging (except if you don't mind using hangouts for text and mms), you'll have to add the correct apn info, and you'll only get LTE speeds of about 10 Mbps. Leave it the way you changed it to for activation and the phone will function exactly as it does on supported devices with the ability to mms from any text app, working visual vm and the APN will configure itself and your LTE speeds will improve substantially. I hit 60 Mbps consistently. There's an easy way to tell. If your carrier label states "Project Fi" then the build.prop is showing the phone as a device thats not officially supported and you'll have to deal with the extra issues I've stated above. If the carrier label reads "Fi Network" then you phone is seen as a supported device and everything will work perfectly with the exception of seamless network transitioning.

Hope this helps some people out!