As RCS takes over the standard messaging service on Android, Google Messaging leads the charge. Yesterday, Samsung and Google announced that Google Messages would be “native” to the Galaxy S21, but without going into details about what that meant. Now, we have a little more context.
In an interview with Engadget, Hiroshi Lockheimer from Google further details that Google Messaging on the Galaxy S21 looks more “native” in two ways. First, there are some design and functionality tweaks in the app to make it work better with Samsung’s One UI and appear to belong to that platform.
Most crucially, it also means that Google Messaging is the pre-installed and standard SMS / RCS application on the Galaxy S21, S21 + and S21 Ultra. Quoting Hiroshi, however, the app “unfortunately” is not the standard experience in the United States. For unknown reasons, Samsung chose to maintain its own application in the United States only. In addition to “some exceptions”, the rest of the world will see its S21 launched with Google Messages instead of Samsung Messages.
This change means that Samsung is following some other Android OEMs by adopting Google Messaging instead of a personalized customer. OnePlus, Motorola, LG and other companies have abandoned their own applications to handle SMS for a faster and easier way to RCS. Samsung Messaging has long supported RCS, but Google Messaging has implemented functionality on virtually all Android phones on the planet at this time.
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