
See that dark blue bubble? That tells you you're using Chat. You can guide them through the setup process (or send them a link to this post). You'll be able to take advantage sooner by getting your friends to use Google Messages.

Whoever you're talking to will also need to have the feature enabled on their device to use the new chat features, though of course all usual texting features still apply. As long as it says Connected, your phone number is registered with Chat and should use the service whenever you're talking to a contact who also has Chat enabled.

If you run into issues with 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. This same settings page is also where you can go to turn your read receipts on or off, as well as disable the typing indicator whenever you're typing and control what happens if Chat fails to send a message. You can either wait for a prompt in the Messages app asking if you want to see when your friends are typing - a prompt that has shown up almost instantly for me on the last few Android phones I have set up, or you can go into the Settings section of Messages select Chat features and slide the switch next to Enable chat features to the On position. Turning on Chat takes just a few taps and you're all set.Īfter installing Google's Messages app and setting it as your default texting app, there are two different ways to enable Chat. The service is globally available, so it shouldn't matter which carrier you use or what country you live in, as long as you have the Messages app installed and are using it, you'll have access to Chat. Just follow the prompts and don't worry, you won't lose your conversation history by switching.Īfter setting Messages as your default messaging app, take a couple of minutes and set up Messages for Web, which allows you to send and receive text messages from your computer. The first time you launch Messages, it will ask if you want to set it as your default app.
#Imessage for android google play how to
How to get started with Google's Chat featureįirst, you'll need an Android phone with Google's Messages app installed and set as the default text-messaging app. Let's take a closer look at what you'll need to do to turn on the new feature, as well as some of the more nuanced aspects of Chat. To be clear, if you're not using Chat, you're missing out. You can start using Android Messages and Chat right now. You don't have to wait for the carriers to finish their rollouts, some of which won't even begin until 2022. It also mashes together emojis in novel ways and puts them front and center to liven up conversations. To tackle this, Google's Messages app includes Google Chat - also known technically as RCS Messaging - which has a lot of the same perks that iMessage has, including end-to-end encrypted messaging, improved group chats, read receipts, typing indicators and full-resolution photos and videos. And I can't fail to mention the weird social (and sometimes romantic?) divide Apple encourages by giving other iMessage users their own colorful conversation bubble. Apple's iMessage really does put regular text messaging to shame thanks to enhanced features like Wi-Fi messaging, full-resolution photos and videos, typing indicators so you can see when someone is responding, and read receipts. Verizon is the latest carrier to make the announcement, following T-Mobile and AT&T, both of which made the same announcement earlier this year.Įliminating iMessage envy is order to fill. Starting this week, all three major US wireless carriers have committed to making Google Messages the default messaging app for Android phones.

Whether the app's behaviors were clumsy or a deliberate attempt to harvest user credentials, it violated Google Play's policies and has been dumped.Google is fighting back against Apple rival iMessage envy by making its own Messages app a lot more fun. The data is re-encrypted as part of this process, but its size is deterministically unaffected.” Likewise, if the client wants to send a message, it first talks to the third-party server, which returns what needs to be sent to Apple.

#Imessage for android google play update
(It's a good idea for anyone that tried the application to run a password reset immediately).įreeman wrote: “Every packet from Apple is forwarded to 222.77.191.206, which then sends back exactly what data to send to Apple (along with extra packets that I presume tell the client what's happening so it can update its UI). What that meant was users were asked to submit their Apple ID and password to a third party. It didn't “make iMessage run on Android”, but rather sent data off for pre-processing to a server in China. There was a catch in the app, as is discussed by Jay Freeman here. IMessage for Android users was deep-sixed after Google determined it is a subterfuge to collect user data.
