Stop being jealous of iMessage. How to use sophisticated Google text messages on Android phones

Talk to almost anyone iPhone owner about his favorite features, and it’s almost a guarantee that will mention iMessage, which surpasses the standard text messaging app with a set of useful and enhanced features, including smart group threads, send and read receipts, Wi-Fi messaging, and full-resolution photo sharing. So where does that leave Android?

Fortunately, Google’s messaging skills are catching up. Just last week, Google added reactions to chat conversations, allowing you to like or send a message, just as you can in an iMessage or Facebook Messenger conversation.

The boring technical name for the service is RCS Messaging, but more commonly, and easier to remember, Google refers to features as Chat. If you are not using it now, you are missing it. Most of iMessage’s most popular features are built into Google Chat, which is built into the Google Messaging app, including the ability to send and receive messages from your computer.

To use the features, you must use the Google Messaging app, not your phone’s proprietary text messaging app. We’ll show you how to make Messages your default text app if it’s not already, what text features you get, and how to get started using Google chat messages on your Android phone.

Even Samsung is getting into the act. It recently announced that its Messages app will soon start using the same RCS technology that is available in Google’s Messages app. If you have a Samsung Galaxy phoneYour best bet is to use the Google Messages app for now, at least until Samsung completes its implementation. We will update this post as we learn more.

Let’s take a closer look at what you’ll need to do to activate the new feature, as well as some of Chat’s more nuanced aspects.

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Get started with Google’s chat feature

First, you’ll need an Android phone with the Google Messaging app installed and set as the default text messaging app. The first time you start Messages, it will ask you if you want to set it as your default app. Just follow the prompts and don’t worry, you won’t lose your conversation history when you switch.

After setting Messages as your default messaging app, take a couple of minutes and set up Messages for Web, which allows you send and receive text messages from your computer.

The chat will work in the United States, the United Kingdom, France or Mexico. There is no official list of countries, but Android Police has received reports from users in Italy, Portugal and Singapore who have also been able to use Chat. Android Central also has a list of respective countries and carriers that offer support.

Activate Google chat features

After installing the Google Messaging app and setting it as your default text messaging app, there are two different ways to enable Chat. You can wait for a message in the Messages app asking if you want to see when your friends are writing, or you can go to Configurations Messages section and look for the change to activate Chat.

When you receive the message, touch Update now then follow the prompts and enter your phone number if prompted. Alternatively, you can also open Messages and tap the three-dot menu button (top right corner of the app) and select Configurations > Chat features.

This same setup page is also where you can go to enable or disable your read receipts, as well as disable the write prompt every time you type, and monitor what happens if Chat can’t send a message.

If you’re having trouble sending messages, you can also view the current status of your phone’s connection to the chat service in the settings section of the app. As long as I say Connected, your phone number is registered in Chat and you should use the service whenever you are talking to a contact who also has Chat enabled.

That is an important aspect of chat. Whoever is talking will also need to have the feature enabled on their device to use the new chat features, although of course all the usual texting features still apply.

You can take advantage of it earlier by having your friends use Google Messages. You can guide them through the setup process (or send them a link to this post).

Use the new chat features in a conversation

After activating the chat features, the Messages app will continue to work and look the same, and you should continue to use it in the same way as always. The application knows when you are talking to someone through text messages or another contact with chat activated.

The easiest way to tell if a conversation is using old-fashioned text messages or the new chat features is to look at the text box before you start typing. If the box says “Chat Message,” the conversation will have typing indicators, read receipts, and the rest of the features that RCS Messaging offers.

To use the new feedback feature, touch and hold a message until a bubble appears, presenting you with a few different options, such as love, laugh, or anger.

When the chat features are in use, you will see delivered and read receipts under each message you have sent, and you can send full resolution photos and share files with other chat users. You don’t have to do anything special to send a high resolution image, just tap the photo icon in the app and choose a photo or video. You’ll see a load circle on the image as it loads and sends, but otherwise the process looks and works just like sending a text message.

Because Chat works over mobile data or Wi-Fi, you can put your phone in airplane mode and still be able to send and receive messages with other Chat users.

Change phone? Be sure to disable chat

Just like Apple’s iMessage tries to retain your phone number if you forget to disable it, so does Chat. Before removing the SIM card From your phone be sure to disable Chat. If you forget to disable chat features before moving your SIM card to a new phone, the chat features may continue to work for up to eight days. That is, you cannot receive messages sent to your number by someone who uses the chat.

Disable chat by opening Configurations > Chat functions in the Messages app and slide the switch next to Enable chat features to the Off position. I suggest waiting a few minutes after turning it off to allow Google’s servers to process the request and make sure your number doesn’t stay in limbo.

Note: your messages are not encrypted

Google does not currently encrypt your conversations with other chat users. Conversations are sent securely from your phone to the Google server and then to the recipient’s phone, after which the messages are removed from the Google server, but those messages are not end-to-end encrypted.

You can use apps like WhatsApp and Signal, or Apple’s iMessage if you prefer end-to-end encryption.

If Google’s chat service is still not enough to keep you on Android, switching to iPhone is easier than you think. However, if you are completely satisfied with Android, we have a summary of the best apps in 2020, along with a handful of our favorite features coming to Android 11 when it is officially released later this year.