Since you saw the news earlier in the week about the end of Samsung Messages, you might be looking for an alternative. Is there even a Samsung Messages alternative that you’ll like? Is it just Google Messages or are there other choices?
I have bad news. Well, unless you like having limited choices. And by “limited,” I mean one.
The best Samsung Messages alternative is going to be Google Messages.
Yeah, I know, this isn’t what you wanted to hear, especially if you don’t love having to use only Google services. But here’s the thing – it has RCS. No other texting app is going to have RCS and you will want RCS.
There are alternative texting apps like Textra, but unfortunately, they haven’t been given access to RCS (Rich Communication Services). That means an old school messaging experience without the typing indicators and read receipts, without the high-res media sharing, and the improved group chats. It’ll work, but it won’t play as nicely with all of your friends and family members who are using more advanced messaging.
Even iPhones now have RCS support, so your conversations with people who own iPhones are greatly improved. If you choose another texting app that isn’t Google Messages, you’ll miss out there and continue to be a frustrating force inside conversations.
If you don’t like the idea of Google Messages and want to try something else, there are other messaging services worth looking at. There are apps like Telegram, WhatsApp, and Signal that are their own services, with robust feature sets. However, to use them, you’d have to convince all of your contacts to use them, since they aren’t SMS or standard texting. These services are huge, though! There is a chance you know a lot of people already on these types of services and it might be a great time to transition, knowing that Samsung Messages is going away. It might be worth a quick conversation with friends to see which services outside of texting they use.
To recap, Samsung Messages will be discontinued in the US in July 2026. Samsung is recommending that you switch over to Google Messages as your default text message app to keep a “consistent messaging experience” on Android. That would also be our recommendation.
Google Play Link: Google Messages
