For a long time, Samsung Messages was the SMS app available on Samsung phones. Now it has been replaced by Google Messages. While Google Messages may be the better app, that doesn’t mean this change is a good thing. In many ways, it’s a step backwards.
RCS should replace SMS and not become another walled garden
On the surface, Google Messages is an SMS app like any other. But under the hood, it’s not an online instant messaging app like WhatsApp or Signal. It’s built on RCS, a protocol designed to be a replacement for SMS.
RCS stands for Rich Communication Services. It enables features like read receipts (the check marks that appear when someone has received or read your messages), typing indicators (the bouncing dots), reactions (the emojis you can use to respond to messages), and high-quality images.
Like iMessage, Google Messages sends fully functional messages to other phones that have Google Messages, but relies on SMS for the rest. Now that Apple is adding RCS support to iMessage, Google Messages will also gain the ability to send fully functional messages to iPhones.
It’s exciting that Apple is adding RCS support to iMessage. In an ideal world, RCS would serve as an open standard that any RCS app can interact with.
With SMS, it doesn’t matter what SMS app you use. Nobody knows and nobody cares. It could be Google Messages on your Pixel, iMessage on your iPhone, Samsung Messages on an older Samsung device, a third-party app, or the built-in SMS feature of a feature phone. No matter which one you use, the messages are the same.
There is now only one RCS app on Android: Google Messages. Samsung Messages used to have RCS support, but that feature was discontinued and now the app as a whole is following suit. There are absolutely valid reasons to choose Google Messages over Samsung Messages. The sad part is that using RCS on Android now practically means everyone has to focus on the same app.
Google Messages feels primarily like a Google app
Google Messages looks like a Google product. The Google branding is visible at the top of your chats when you tap the app icon. When you open Settings, you’ll first find the Google account options and have to dig deeper to configure the actual app. This gives the feeling that you’re using a Google web service rather than a native app on your phone.
The result is that you’re not just “text messaging.” It’s not even immediately obvious that you’re using RCS instead of SMS. You’re using Google Messages, just like iPhone users use iMessage.
Most Android phones now come with Google Messages pre-installed, whether your phone is from Samsung, Motorola, OnePlus, Sony or HTC. The SMS app, which used to be simply part of a phone’s infrastructure, similar to a dialer app, is now another Google app, sitting alongside Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps and the Play Store itself.
Samsung Messages can be integrated into other Samsung apps
I’m writing this on a Galaxy Z Fold 5, a device I’m currently turning into a PC by connecting it to a lapdock. More specifically, I’m using Samsung Notes. I like that when I switch from Samsung Notes to Samsung My Files or Samsung Gallery, the look and feel of the apps is consistent.
This used to be the case with Samsung Messages. It looked like other Samsung apps and offered visual consistency when switching between the dialer or contacts app and the text messaging app. Check out these shots of the final version of Samsung Messages.
See how well this fits with the Samsung dialer.
The consistency extends across all other apps delivered on Galaxy devices, such as Samsung Gallery.
That’s no longer the case with Google Messages. Google Messages isn’t Samsung’s One UI. It was designed with stock Android in mind, meaning it looks best on Pixel devices or phones that closely adhere to the stock Android look and feel, like Motorola phones. The differences are subtle and most people probably don’t care, but for me the differences are painfully noticeable.
I used to prefer phones that shipped with stock Android, but now I actually appreciate the differences Samsung has made in its devices. Samsung’s One UI interface isn’t as flashy as the company’s previous TouchWiz interface, and there are a lot of features built into Samsung’s system that I miss when using other Android devices.
Less competition pushes Google to innovate
Google Messages dominates Android and has only one major competitor: iMessage. Google’s developers are working hard to both match Apple’s service in functionality and add features that might lure people away.
Still, there’s a difference between the features you build to compete with iMessage and those you get by imitating Samsung. Samsung Messages offers a number of compelling features, some of which were never part of Google Messages and others that were once part of the Google app but have since disappeared.
Remember that Samsung Messages allows you to give each chat a unique look. The app also offers the option to sort chats into categories.
This is a prime example of Samsung, a company that pushes themes and customization much further than Android’s default options. Finally, the company releases the Good Lock suite, which lets you configure virtually every aspect of your phone.
With each version of One UI, Samsung adds more features to its apps. Far from being unnecessary bloatware, these apps are some of the best apps Android has to offer. Samsung Internet has many advantages over Google Chrome. Samsung Gallery is a better local photo management tool than Google Photos, which focuses on cloud-based features. Samsung Notes offers a wider range of features than Google Keep.
With the end of Samsung Messages, there’s one less company innovating the way we send messages from our phones, making phone calls a little less fun.
I hope that one day an ecosystem of SMS apps will emerge around the RCS protocol. I like the idea of downloading an open source SMS app like QKSMS (maybe QKRCS?) that lets you chat with contacts who use Google Messages and Apple iMessage. Still, this opportunity feels a bit limited after witnessing the death of an option that already had some level of RCS support.
While RCS does offer real benefits in terms of privacy and usability, this is another area where the Google-Apple duopoly is currently being further cemented. Modern texting is becoming something you can no longer do from just any phone. You need a smartphone and, in particular, an app from Google or Apple to make it work.
