Some notes on the transition from Samsung Messenger to Google Messages on your Android phone

[AZJonnie]

I posted this on another thread about the discontinuation of Samsung Messenger, but I thought it (arguably) deserves it's own post.

Here's how to transition:
1) If you don't already have Google Messages app on your phone (it will be in your Apps list if you do), you need to install it from the Play Store
2) Then you set Google Messages as the default messaging app in your phone (Settings-Apps-Choose Default Apps-SMS App-Pick Google Messages).

That's the whole transition. All old texts are still there, it's just a more feature-rich interface (shows you indicator that the other user is typing, for instance, which Samsung messenger does not).

I've seen some concern about its "AI" features so the following is a bit about that.

There's only one "AI" feature that may "phone home", and that is the "Magic Compose" feature. IOW if/when you explicitly use this feature to write your message for you, it may reach out to the cloud and send it up to 20 of your recent messages in order to "compose" your message for you (personally have never used, don't imagine I ever will, but it's there).

Important Caveats: When I say it "may", here's what that means:
1) If you have an S23 or older Samsung, Magic Compose will always send messages to cloud *IF* you use the Magic Compose feature. The processor itself lacks AICore, so no ability to process your texts locally.
2) If you have an S24, Magic Compose *may* be setup currently to send messages to cloud *IF* you use the Magic Compose feature, BUT you have an option to set it to send your recent texts to Gemini Nano (which is a purely local AI engine i.e. nothing is sent to the cloud for processing, it's done on your phone itself), you just may have to tweak a setting to enable Nano instead. Apparently some S24's handset will default differently from others, probably based on when the phone was made (later ones will already be set to Gemini Nano).
3) If you have an S25 or S26, Gemini Nano is the DEFAULT AI engine for Messenger, so you don't have to do anything to keep your texts 100% local even if you use Magic Compose.

If anyone is on an S24 and wants to know how to switch it to use Nano for Magic Compose, let me know and I'll give instructions

If you have a lower-end Samsung (i.e. not an S-series) you'll have to check whether its processor supports AICore to know if you can switch over to Nano for that feature, I didn't research that bit.

I'll add that the problem wherein if you have a multiple recipient message thread with some people on Android and some on Apple, you end up with two separate threads (one with "other people's replies" and another with "your replies" ... fricking ANNOYING! ) is NOT solved in Google Messages, at least not for me, on AT&T, maybe it is on some other carriers. My understanding is that the "issue" is with Apple, not Android. Apple doesn't care to do what's necessary to let Android phones properly handle group threads spanning across both platforms. But this may just be one company blaming a rival for their problems, not sure on that

[a kennedy]

1. Thank you.