Verizon Wireless customers who rely on the carrier’s Message Plus text messaging app will soon have to switch to their phone’s default SMS app as the carrier plans to phase it out entirely on Monday.

This change will likely be most visible to customers using an Android phone purchased from Verizon before 2022. This was the year that Google Messages came pre-installed on Android devices after officially announcing support for next-generation RCS messaging. The Message Plus service was also available for the iPhone, but Verizon did not replace Apple’s Messages for phones sold directly by the carrier.

For the most part, the switch is simple and will become mandatory once Verizon shuts down its SMS app entirely. There are now a variety of ways to send SMS on Android, even if you don’t primarily want to use Google’s messaging app. However, with RCS SMS now available on both iPhone and Android, switching to Google Messages is the easiest way to maintain functionality comparable to Verizon Messages while retaining features like typing indicators and higher quality media sharing when iPhone Users texting from an Android phone.

RCS isn’t perfect yet – the lack of cross-platform encryption means you should also consider an encrypted texting app like WhatsApp or Signal – but its wider availability is one reason Verizon’s own SMS app doesn’t need to be retained.

What is Verizon’s Message Plus app and why is it closing?

Verizon Messages, also known as Message Plus, was the carrier’s own text messaging app that came standard on Android phones the carrier sold until 2022. The app acted as a combination SMS app and chat app, allowing users to both send and receive standard SMS and MMS messages, as well as improvements to sending SMS to other users who also use the service.

Similar to Apple’s iMessage or Meta’s WhatsApp, texts sent between users both using Message Plus could see typing indicators, set up group chats, and send texts from other devices like computers instead of being tied to just a single phone. This app could also be installed on an iPhone, where it worked more like installing a separate chat app like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.

However, because Verizon supports the RCS SMS standard – which includes many of the same features of Message Plus without being tied specifically to Verizon – the carrier announced in 2021 that it would pre-install Android devices with Google Messages instead of Google Messages become your own Message Plus.

Verizon has already begun the process of retiring its SMS app, which will be phased out completely on December 9th. At this point, any remaining customers still using will need to change their SMS app.

How do I switch from Verizon’s SMS app to another?

For Android users, Verizon recommends switching to Google Messages due to the app’s RCS compatibility. However, you can also switch to any other SMS app available on the Google Play Store. However, Google Messages may be the best fit for most people, as it offers an iMessage-like texting experience to most other Android phones that also use Google Messages, with features like typing indicators, high-quality media sharing, and most importantly Significance lately – Encryption with other Google Messages users.

Google Messages also syncs your previous SMS history from Message Plus, which includes SMS and MMS messages and media attachments less than 5MB in size. Google has also created a support page that details how to find similar features to Verizon Messages in Google Messages.

Additionally, Google Messages supports the RCS standard now used by iPhone users iOS 18which improves cross-platform texting with many of these features, although encryption between iPhone and Android phones is not currently one of them.

To get started, you should first download Google Messages or another SMS app from the Play Store if your phone doesn’t already have your preferred alternative installed. When you first launch the app, you should be prompted to make it your default SMS app. You can also open your Settings app and tap Default appsThen Default SMS app and select your preferred service there. Since different Android phones sometimes have different menu layouts, you can also check for the default SMS app setting. After making this selection, all your future incoming and outgoing messages will be processed by this app and you can drag it to your home screen to replace Message Plus.

What if I want to use another chat service like WhatsApp, Signal or Facebook Messenger?

You can still use it with your new default SMS app – and you probably should. Due to the lack of cross-platform encryption support within the RCS standard, officials at the FBI and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency recommend using encrypted chat apps such as WhatsApp, fearing that wireless carriers will become targeted by hackers over time due to a cyberattack.

While cross-platform encryption could eventually become the RCS standard, using a chat app that already has built-in encryption could protect your data even further by keeping conversations visible only between the sender and receiver.