

It is highly customizable since it has many customizing options for its interface. Then this is one of the best apps out there and it is called Textra SMS. If you are looking for an alternative stock messaging app, something simple, fast, feature rich and beautiful. The Messages update is part of a larger Google and Android feature reveal Thursday morning, which saw Portrait Blur added to Google Photos, Google TV updates and Google Assistant supporting parking payments among other announcements.Color Call Flash - the best free call flash color screen app Overview of Textra SMS

Google's new updates appear to support Google's plans to make its Messages app a stronger alternative to Apple's iMessage while calling for Apple to adopt the RCS standard as an SMS replacement. Apple is a major outlier when it comes to supporting RCS, focusing on its own messaging features for its iMessage platform instead. It could eventually supplant the aging SMS and MMS texting standards.Īlthough the functionality of SMS and MMS is more limiting than RCS, those standards work across all phones, from iPhones down to basic flip phones. The RCS texting standard, which is so far supported by both Google and carriers like Verizon, brings encrypted messaging, typing indicators, read receipts, higher-quality photo sharing and other features to Android phones. Google Photos already makes it easy to share a batch of photos or video, and the new integration should provide faster access from within the Messages app. You'll be able to send a Google Photos link to a full quality video within a chat rather than sharing a compressed version of the clip directly over SMS.


It also wants to make it easier to send full quality videos from within the Messages app. Google has spent the last several years investing in its default messaging app to compete with Apple, which has long offered a unified messaging platform for Apple devices that incorporates many features available in the RCS standard.īut Google is planning more than just support for iPhone reactions. The RCS-driven features inside of Google's Messages app are also named Chat. Previous efforts, including Allo, Hangouts, Voice and a few iterations of Google Chat, are either being shut down or repurposed. Google's advocacy of the RCS standard and investment into its Messages app comes after many attempts to develop a proprietary texting app of its own.
