best messaging app for android.A Look At The Google Messages App for Android. Is It Any Good?.
If you don’t have it on your phone, you can download and install Messages from the Google Play Store
With so many messaging apps available for Android like Facebook Messenger, Pulse SMS, and EvolveSMS to name just a few, are Google messaging good enough to use as your default messaging app?
Let’s take a closer look at the features you’ll find in the Google Messages app for Android, and you can decide for yourself.
Google Messages app window
The main message box in Google Messages is what you’d expect from a messaging app. You will see a log of all messages sent and received, as well as a Start Chat button at the bottom to send someone a new message.
Before we get to that, take a look at the menu items by clicking on the three dots in the upper right corner of the window.
Here you will see the following options:
- Mark all unread messages as read (useful to avoid bold short messages that you can read in the log window).
- Open Google Posts for Web
- Change the theme to light or dark.
- Review your archived messages.
- Review messages that you have flagged as spam or blocked.
- Open the settings window.
- Get help or give feedback on Google.
If you haven’t heard of the web version of Google Messages, this is a very useful feature if you don’t always have your phone with you when you work on various computers and other devices.
Google Messages for the web
When you select Messages for the Web from the menu, a new window opens where you can click QR Code Scanner to scan the QR code provided by the Google Messages web page.
To do this, visit messages.google.com/web/ If this is your first time using the site and have not synced your phone yet, you will see a QR code After clicking on the QR code scanner, simply scan the QR code on the screen with the camera.
This will sync your phone message with the Google Messages cloud app. Now you will see the log of incoming and outgoing messages on the page.
You can select any of the log messages to continue the conversation as if you were on the phone.
You can click on the three dots at the top of the window to access the same menu that you opened on your phone above.
Any settings you change in any of these menus will sync with your phone. All the same settings are available in one long menu on the web page.
Think of this web app as the cloud-based messaging app on your phone.
This is a great way to keep track of important incoming messages, even if you’ve left your phone in the car or sat in a drawer where you can’t hear any notifications.
Google message setup lists
A good way to fully understand the features provided by Google Messages is to explore the settings menu.
In the main settings window, you can configure features such as:
- Do you want the application to make noise when sending outgoing messages.
- Set the current country or Android should automatically detect it.
- Enable or disable auto-correction and auto-suggestion in messages. You can also apply these settings to Google Assistant.
- Enable or disable the preview of web links in the chat window.
- Turn on business sender verification so that Google can block unwanted spam from a trusted company.
- Enable or disable smart algorithms in Google Messaging to block spam.
When you select chat features in the settings window, you can configure all of the following Google Messages features:
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- Check if the Google Messages app has connectivity.
- Set the app to use Wi-Fi for messaging if mobile data is not enabled.
- Allow others to see if you’ve read their messages (read receipts).
- Turn on whether others can see if you are typing (if their own messaging app is compatible).
- Turn on or off if you want Messages to automatically download the files people send you, even if you’re only using mobile data.
By selecting App notifications in the settings menu, you can configure whether you want to see notifications on your phone or on the web when you receive incoming messages.
It also lets you customize how you want to receive notifications, turn on spam protection, and whether you want to be notified when a file is downloaded through the app.
Find and send messages on Google Messages
Every time you receive a new message from someone you never received a message from, Google Messages will ask you what you want to do with that new contact.
You can select “Add Contact” to add this person to your contact list, or select “Report Spam” to mark them as spam senders.
Google Posts also has a powerful search feature, so you can search your entire post history for any of the following:
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- Images
- Videos
- Places
- Links
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This is extremely useful when you know that someone sent you a picture of their baby months ago, but you don’t want to flip through hundreds of old messages to find it.
Creating new messages in Google Messages is fun too. The application offers a whole library of functions when entering messages. To access them, simply click the + icon to the left of the text input field.
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Right below the text message box, you can search for GIFs, find emojis, send your current location, share one of your contact details, or send a file to a person from your mobile device or Google Drive.
If you select the small camera and image icon to the left of the text box, a new window will appear below that box. There you will see a small preview window showing the current camera image and a link to a gallery that you can use to search for images on your device.
The camera preview lets you take a quick photo as you write a text message without having to switch to the camera app to do so. It is very convenient.
Whether you decide to use Google Messages or not is up to you, but the Google Messages app is worth a try. It has all the features of most major messaging apps and is constantly updated with new useful features that you will love.
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A Look At The Google Messages App for Android. Is It Any Good?
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