latest
The cell phone wasn't quite 10 years old in December 1992. The switch from analog 1G networks to the advanced digital 2G networks occurred the previous year. Sony's revolutionary light-weight, rechargeable lithium-ion battery was primed to change the mobile technology landscape. In Britain, the world's first SMS text message was sent between two engineers, unaware of how it would change the world or of the amazing 5G Android phones that you would one day be able to send them on.
What does 'sent as SMS via server' mean?
Getting a strange message about SMS sent via server? Here's exactly what that means and why it happens
Sometimes, particularly on your Android phone, you may get a tagalong message with a text that says, "Sent as SMS via Server," when sending and receiving texts. We understand if that makes you a little nervous. It's not apparent what it means, and it makes you wonder if your text went through, if something is wrong with your data plan, and other bad scenarios.
Google's new 'iPager' video takes on Apple's odd resistance to RCS
The long-forgotten belt clip also makes an appearance
Rich Communication Service, or RCS, is an advanced messaging standard that seeks to eliminate the archaic text messaging standard or SMS/MMS. While secure RCS messaging has been supported by Android for a while now, Apple has been rather skeptical about adopting this standard. Google never misses an opportunity to poke fun at the iPhone maker for its hypocrisy in claiming to be for security but continuing to resist the use of RCS messaging. We've already seen a few quirky campaigns by the search giant as part of the #GetTheMessage campaign. Google has now come up with another gem, likening Apple's resistance to a gadget from the years past.
Weekend poll: Do you prefer messaging apps that also support SMS?
Your group chats and your OTP texts, living side-by-side
Messaging on Android is better than ever, as Google finally got its act together by focusing on RCS. Of course, in the decade it took to build a platform worthy of rivaling iMessage, plenty of third-party clients have burst onto the scene. When it comes to privacy and security, it's hard to beat Signal, but the app found itself in some hot water with fans this week after suddenly dropping SMS support. To some, that might seem like the loss of a much-have feature. For others, you might not even notice.
Google Messages teaches old dog SMS a new trick
Even if you don't use the app, reactions are getting better thanks to Google
Despite Google's repeated pleas and jibes at Apple to adopt RCS messaging for iPhones, we aren't any closer to that happening. Reactions (or Tapbacks, as Apple calls them) are a key sticking point for the two parties as communication between an iPhone user and Android has remained fairly old-fashioned with no meaningful support for on-message reactions while using SMS. That seemed to be changing last week when Google was found to be testing the ability to react to SMS texts sent from an iPhone user. The feature now appears to be rolling out more widely with some users seeing changes to how their reactions appear.
Spammy ads are invading Google Messages — here's how to get rid of them
It takes just a few taps to reclaim your inbox
Armed with RCS, Google Messages is the current face of the company's longstanding quest for a worthy messaging app. While the multipurpose SMS app now has the features to rival the likes of WhatsApp, it still fails in one key area—and that area is spam. That’s especially true when the sources are verified business accounts that have been hassling scores of users lately with spammy in-chat advertisements within Google Messages.
WhatsApp makes voice message speed controls available for everyone
It's gradually rolling out to all users
Read update
Some people speak faster than others. Some listen faster than others. If the discrepancy gets on your nerves, specifically when you're listening to a voice message someone left you in WhatsApp, you might want to hop on the beta channel. The option to increase playback speed (as seen in some podcast managers) is now rolling out to beta users.
WhatsApp may add a new option for disappearing messages soon
A new 24-hour time limit has been spotted in a test build
Late last year WhatsApp added the option to force your messages to disappear, a la Telegram. At the time the only setting was for the messages to vanish after 7 days, but according to a leak uncovered by some fanatical fans of the platform, that choice will soon be expanding. An upcoming version of the feature with an additional 24-hour option was spotted in development.
Your WhatsApp account can be suspended by anyone who has your phone number
Researchers reveal gaping hole in the popular chat app's security
If you're a frequent user of WhatsApp, you may want to keep an eye on a disturbing hole discovered in its security this weekend. It's possible for an attacker to completely suspend your WhatsApp account, without any recourse for the individual user, and all they need is your phone number. At the time of writing there's no solution for this issue.
US carriers close security loophole that allowed easy SMS hijack
$16 and a lie or two is all it takes to reroute your incoming text messages
Read update
Your phone and its associated number are always with you, and only you, so it makes sense that a text message sent to you is a solid secondary method for authenticating a login. But savvy tech users know this method of verification is rife for exploitation: SIM jacking, SS7 attacks, and other hacking methods are now common. A recent investigation showed that it's possible to perform similar attacks with readily-available marketing tools, with the victim none the wiser.
Google Voice won't forward text messages to outside numbers much longer
Call forwarding isn't affected, at least for now
The slow, painful stagnation of Google's call forwarding service continues. An update to the support text for Google Voice says that soon SMS forwarding for Google Voice will no longer operate. That will leave the Google Voice app, on your phone or the web, as the only place that they're visible. Google says that carriers are beginning to block these messages, which is, indeed, something we've observed over the last few weeks.
WhatsApp is still working on password-protected Google Drive backups
The encrypted backups have been coming for a long time
It's been almost exactly a year since the last time we saw leaked screenshots of an encrypted cloud backup feature for WhatsApp. Today we see a more fleshed-out version of that tool, offering a password protected backup of your messages that uploads to Google Drive on Android and iCloud on iOS. Unfortunately, there's still no indication of when it's actually going to go live.
Samsung SMS Messaging app for Windows spotted in the Microsoft Store
It's in a closed test for now, and might be limited to Samsung-branded laptops
There are a bunch of ways to access text messages from a desktop, including solutions from Google and Microsoft. And you know Samsung: once lots of other companies do something, it just has to have its own proprietary solution, too. Now we're getting early signs of a Samsung Messaging app hanging out in the Microsoft Store, which describes itself as a way to send and receive texts from your phone in Windows.
Google Duo and Messages might stop working on uncertified phones soon
People with unsupported phones will have to look for alternatives
Read update
Duo and Google Messages are among the best communication apps Google has ever released, so it's no surprise that they're incredibly popular even among people whose phones ship without Google apps. Unfortunately, it looks like those uncertified phones might soon not be able to run Duo and Messages anymore. XDA Developers and 9to5Google have uncovered strings that reveal that the apps will soon stop working on unsupported devices.
Many Android fans believe in a sort of holy grail: That iMessage can somehow be brought to Android. Almost everything else when moving from iOS to Android has a workaround, an app, or some way to accommodate it, though iMessage remains an Apple-controlled platform exclusive with a dominating presence in the US market. But a new app formally launching today called Beeper aims to change that, delivering not just iMessage for Android, but a single unified messaging app for all your other services, too, like Telegram, Slack, Signal, Twitter DMs, Discord, Hangouts, and even IRC.
Google is rolling back a Carrier Services update to fix SMS issues on some phones
The old version is coming to phones automatically via the Play Store
Google has decoupled many system features from Android over the years to allow for seamless over-the-air updates, making millions of phones that don't receive new firmware releases as often as they should more secure. But sometimes, things go wrong despite this approach. This time around, we've received reports of people complaining about SMS sending and receiving issues following an update of the Carrier Services that has been rolling out over the past few days. Google has reacted swiftly and has already pulled the update, downgrading most phones to the previous version.
Google's finally starting to highlight text messages from verified businesses
Verified SMS becoming more useful to Google Messages users
Companies engaging with their customers are now able to flip on an updated API to show their status as a verified business as well as a short profile while texting through Google Messages. Owners and representatives will also be able to chat with their customers through the Google Maps app.
Read update
Recently, some SMS/text messages sent by Google Fi subscribers were arriving as strange Chinese gibberish — with the occasional emoji thrown in for good measure. Tests confirmed that the problem seemed to be caused by an encoding issue, likely exclusive to Fi messages sent to Verizon subscribers. Google tells us it has since rolled out a fix for the problem.
Google Messages is the main SMS client for Android, and while most of the app's recent development has been focused on improving RCS, the design team has also been hard at work. Now the app is receiving a top search bar, similar to what Gmail and other Google apps already have.
Chrome 83 was released last week with quite a few improvements, like cookie blocking in Incognito Mode and new Microsoft-made form controls. Chrome 84 has now graduated to the beta channel, and it's one of the largest browser updates we've seen in a while.