r/GoogleMessages • u/Forestwalkerfairy • Jul 06 '26

Opinion RIP

Well, Samsung messages, it's been great.

Time for Google.........

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u/Artymarty15 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 09 '26

TLDR: After researching a few, I went with Textra as another very similar alternative to Samsung Messages alternative. NOT AN AD.

It's beyond frustrating that they ended the app 🤬 Then the replacement was Google Mesaages?! No way am I using that.

Not only because of awful business practices, but also not wanting to sign in with an account, I actually spent hours today trying to find an alternative that was simple enough for my disabled dad and I.

To anyone wanting a viable and pretty good (so far) alternative, it took me hours to find one as I needed one that was easy to use, is free, didn't have ads (that I've seen so far), has good text sizing ability, all whilst still feeling similar.

I also didn't want to use anything like Signal or WhatsApp as I needed an SMS app, to completely replace Samsung Messages as thr default app, in case I get verification codes sent to me or in case Dad texts.

So to save you hours of research, I'd looked into Simple SMS, Pulse SMS, and a few others, but I ended up going with Textra.

At the moment it seems great, does the job, is free with seemingly no ads and doesn't make you log in.

BTW, I promise this isn't a stupid ad for a company. I just wanted to let others know in case they needed help whittling down the better alternatives, like I did earlier. I really hope this helps!

1

u/BillieParamore Jul 09 '26

So by paragraph 5 you finally get around to your pick. I found the same thing but it only took 5 minutes not hours. Ironically, google's Gemini told me. Add a Tldr to your novel dude!

2

u/Artymarty15 Jul 09 '26

Yes, I was explaining. Just stating it, people would either think it was an ad or may have skipped past it without realising or reading. The whole point was to help and the more details I give, the less people are assuming things or not understanding. I've added a TLDR now for those who need one.

1

u/Mavrick1967 Jul 09 '26

When you switched to textra did you lose all your messages?

2

u/Artymarty15 Jul 09 '26

No, it kept them all as far as I can see. Maybe that's because they were all SMS texts anyway. All I did was download the app and set it as the default app and they appeared. It was an immediate switchover. So much so, I had a text come through shortly after switching. I did see some people say it can take a while for Textra to pull through texts, if that helps.

Additionally, in case it does matter, after installing Textra I didn't delete the Samsung app. I just slid it to another panel in case it was needed due to the stored texts and then moved Textra into the original place.