I wanted to love this Google Messages alternative, but one missing feature pulled me right back
by Anu Joy · Android PoliceOn Android, I have mostly used the default Google Messages app for texting.
But at some point, I became curious about whether I was missing anything by sticking to the default experience.
That’s when I decided to try a different messaging app by switching to Textra SMS.
At first, it felt like a refreshing change. It was simpler in some ways and immediately more customizable than what I was used to. For a while, I genuinely preferred it.
But after using it for a month, I still ended up going back to Google Messages.
The reason had less to do with design or features, and more to do with one specific capability I didn’t fully appreciate until it was gone.
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Textra SMS reminded me why Android customization used to be great
The first thing that stood out after installing Textra SMS was how much control it gave me over the experience.
Google Messages takes a fairly modern approach. It looks clean, follows Google’s design language, and offers relatively few customization options.
Apart from a handful of appearance settings, most of the experience remains fixed.
Textra feels very different. I could change theme colors, conversation bubbles, font sizes, and notification styles.
What made it stand out even more was per-contact customization.
The app lets me customize individual conversations so different contacts can have their own colors, notification sounds, or vibration patterns.
Using Textra reminded me of an older era of Android, when apps regularly exposed dozens of settings and customization options.
Some of Textra’s best features still don’t exist in Google Messages
The more I used Textra, the more I realized that its appeal goes beyond themes and colors.
Google Messages offers very little control over how conversations look. Textra, on the other hand, lets me change bubble styles, emoji styles, and conversation colors.
The app offers enhanced control over font size and style, making long conversations easier to read according to your preferences.
Notifications are also more customizable. Instead of a single system-wide setting, Textra lets me adjust how I am alerted to messages from specific individuals.
One feature I found useful was Textra’s send delay. Every message waits a few seconds before being sent, giving me a chance to catch typos or accidentally sent messages.
Textra also feels denser and more customizable overall.
More messages fit on the screen, I can adjust the interface to suit my preferences, and the app gives me far more control over notifications than Google Messages does.
The missing feature that changed everything
For the first few days, I genuinely thought I might stick with Textra.
The customization was better, the interface felt more personal, and I enjoyed having so much control over how the app looked and behaved.
Then I started noticing small things missing from my conversations.
Photos looked more compressed, group chats behaved differently, and I lost typing indicators and read receipts.
That is when I realized how much I had come to rely on RCS (Rich Communication Services).
Going back to a traditional SMS app made those differences impossible to ignore.
Textra still handled text messages perfectly well, but modern messaging expectations had changed, and RCS had become a bigger part of my daily conversations.
One more thing made the gap even clearer. There is no real cross-device experience.
With Google Messages, I can continue conversations on the web, reply from my computer, and have everything stay in sync.
That might not matter for everyone, but when you get used to messaging from multiple devices, going back feels like a step backwards.
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Textra does not fit how I message anymore
I did not switch back to Google Messages because Textra was missing a few features.
On its own, Textra still feels better in many ways. It gives more control, customization, and flexibility.
But the main issue is that it does not support RCS.
After I returned to SMS-only messaging, I noticed what I was missing: no typing indicators, no read receipts, and lower-quality photos and videos.
On top of that, there is no desktop or web version. I can’t just pick up a conversation on my laptop or reply from a browser. Everything stays locked to my phone.
So even though Textra is still a better SMS app in many ways, it does not really fit how I use messaging anymore, and that is what made me go back to Google Messages.