Just recently, Facebook Messenger received an update that gave it a feature that has been on Google Hangouts for quite some time now.
The more than 500 million people that use Google Hangouts have the option of integrating their Android phone’s default SMS app with the Hangouts app such that all of their SMS messages can now be received, viewed and replied through this Google-owned chat app. In case you didn’t know, this is the same feature that Facebook Messenger has recently received, which essentially allows it to merge with the SMS app on your phone. In this case, we’ll stick to the Google Hangouts app.
As you can see, the app has more to offer – more than just free voice and video calling as well as messaging. Using the Hangouts app, you can better manage your text-based conversations as all of them will be available in one place. However, this will only be worthy for those who rely on Google Hangouts for their instant messaging services. In WhatsApp or Viber is your thing, you may just have signed up for a new app on your Android phone.
How to merge Google Hangouts with Android SMS App
It’s very easy to have your SMS messages available via the Google Hangouts app. However, you will first of all need to install the latest version of this chat app from the Google Play Store. Once the setup is done, open the app and hit the hamburger menu to reveal more options. Proceed by hitting the Settings option and when in there, choose to make Google Hangouts you’re the default app when it comes to sending and receiving SMS messages.
Tap on the “SMS” option in the Settings and hit the “SMS disabled” option to toggle the Google Hangouts-SMS integration feature on. Once you check the box adjacent to the “Enable merged conversations” option that is found under the General Settings, you will start seeing your SMS messages appear inside the Hangouts app. Whenever you open a chat window, you will have options of sending messages via Hangouts or SMS.
How to unmerge SMS with Hangouts
Just like you’ve enabled the merging of SMS with Google Hangouts conversations, it is also possible to reverse the process. All you need is to open the conversation you want to unmerge and hit the button that appears on the top right-hand side corner and then tap on “Un-merge SMS.” The result of this is that your conversations with the selected contact will be separated into two – Hangouts and SMS.
What do you think about the ability to merge Google Hangouts with SMS messages on Android? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
The app / feature itself isn’t that big of a deal for me – what IS a big deal is that this time around when Google pushed out a change, they actually allow the user to choose if they want to enable it or not! Woo!