5 Samsung Messages features that Google Messages is still missing

Samsung Messages is shutting down in a matter of weeks. Starting in July, the app will no longer be supported, and Samsung will push users to switch to Google Messages instead. As it turns out, Samsung Messages has a lot of dedicated fans among Android Authority‘s readership, and you’ve all been vocal in our comments about the features Samsung’s app offers that Google’s doesn’t.

Google Messages has been adding impactful new features pretty frequently lately — a new trash folder last month, real-time location sharing weeks earlier — but there’s still plenty the app can’t do. Here are five Samsung Messages features Android Authority‘s commenters say they’ll miss most once the app winds down.

Samsung Messages lets users customize their chats extensively, with options to manually choose chat colors and even set images as chat backgrounds. This feature has come up in the comments of practically every Android Authority post that mentions Samsung Messages’ upcoming shutdown.

Google Messages doesn’t offer the same level of customization. You can edit chat colors, but as of now, that’s it. Fortunately, we’ve spotted evidence in Google Messages’ code that customized chat backgrounds are in the works: strings in a recent beta build of Google’s app reference custom themes multiple times, including one that specifically mentions custom theme backgrounds.

That was a few weeks ago, so it’s entirely possible we could see chat customization in Google Messages on par with what Samsung Messages offers by the time users are forced to make the switch. With any luck, custom themes will transfer along with the message content, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Samsung Messages lets users create folders to group chats, making it easy to clump conversations about work, family life, hobbies, or whatever else you’ve got going on. While Google Messages can filter spam into its own view and now has a trash folder, it does not support sorting conversations into categories.

Android Authority reader Jamie McMahon actually values this option more than chat themes, commenting that Google should “stop focusing on ways we can change how our messages look and focus on ways we can organize our messages.” I’d have to agree there.

One UI offers an option to have your phone vibrate each time you pick it up when you have missed calls or unread text messages. Commenter Chris4wwf points out that that feature isn’t currently supported by Google Messages: with the “Alert when phone picked up” setting turned on, Samsung phones will vibrate when there are unread messages in Samsung Messages, but not if there are in Google’s messaging app.

Users have been complaining about this functionality gap on Samsung’s forums for some time, and the issue remains unresolved as of last month. Whether this is something on Google’s or Samsung’s end, ideally, it’ll be ironed out soon.

In Samsung Messages’ settings, a toggle labeled “Delete old messages” automatically deletes your oldest texts once you’ve reached 1,000, preventing your chats from getting too long. Commenter greg.sirmon is annoyed that Google Messages doesn’t include any option to automatically delete old text messages, instead only allowing for manual deletion of individual texts or entire text threads.

I’ve never been bothered by an excessively long chat backlog, but as someone who appreciates a tidy digital space, I can sympathize. I can’t see why Google Messages wouldn’t offer options to automatically delete old messages.

Plenty of Android Authority readers have said they’re upset to see Samsung Messages fold, since Samsung’s app was meaningful competition for Google in the Android messaging space.

There are other texting clients on Android, of course (Fossify and Textra are two relatively popular picks), not to mention large multi-platform options like Telegram and WhatsApp. But Samsung Messages started phasing out RCS last year, leaving Google Messages as the only RCS game in town. With Samsung’s app going away almost entirely this summer, it seems likely that’ll be the case for the foreseeable future.