Verizon Wireless customers relying on the carrier’s Message Plus texting app will soon need to change over their phone’s default texting app, as the carrier plans to fully discontinue it Monday.
This change will likely be most noticeable to customers using an Android phone purchased from Verizon before 2022, which was the year Google Messages came preloaded 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.
Switching is largely easy and will become compulsory after Verizon completely pulls the plug on their texting app. There are now a multitude of options for texting on Android, even if you don’t want to primarily use Google’s Messages app. However, now that RCS texting is available across both the iPhone and Android, moving to Google Messages is the easiest way to maintain comparable functionality to Verizon Messages while also gaining features like typing indicators and higher-quality media sharing when texting iPhone users from an Android phone.
RCS isn’t perfect yet — its lack of cross-platform encryption means you should also consider an encrypted texting app like WhatsApp or Signal — but its wider availability is a reason that Verizon’s own texting app isn’t necessary to hold onto.
What is Verizon’s Message Plus app, and why is it shutting down?
Verizon Messages, otherwise known as Message Plus, was the carrier’s own text-messaging app that came preloaded as a default on Android phones sold by the carrier until 2022. The app functioned as a combination SMS app and chat app, allowing users to both send and receive standard SMS and MMS messages as well as enhancements when texting other users who were also using the service.
Much like Apple’s iMessage or Meta’s WhatsApp, texts sent between users who were both using Message Plus could see typing indicators, set up group chats and send texts from other devices like computers instead of being beholden to just a single phone. This app could also be installed onto an iPhone, where it functioned more like installing a separate chat app such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.
However, with Verizon throwing its support behind the RCS texting 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 start preloading Android devices with Google Messages instead of its own Message Plus.
Verizon has already begun sunsetting its texting app, which will stop functioning entirely on Dec. 9. At that time, any remaining customers still using it will need to change their texting app.
How do I switch from Verizon’s texting app to another one?
For Android users, Verizon is recommending the switch to Google Messages because of the app’s RCS compatibility, but you can also switch to any other texting app available in the Google Play store. That said, Google Messages will likely be the best fit for most people, because it provides an iMessage-like experience when texting most other Android phones that also use Google Messages with features like typing indicators, high-quality media sharing and — of particular importance as of late — encryption with other Google Messages users.
Google Messages will also sync your prior texting history from Message Plus, which will include SMS and MMS messages along with media attachments that are under 5MB in size. Google has also created a support page detailing how to find comparable features to Verizon Messages within Google Messages.
Plus, Google Messages supports the RCS standard that’s now used by iPhone users running iOS 18, which does improve cross-platform texting with many of these features, although encryption between iPhone and Android phones is not currently one of them.
To get started, first you should download Google Messages or another texting app from the Play Store, in the event your phone does not already have your preferred alternative installed. When you launch the app for the first time, it should prompt you to make it your default SMS app. You can also open your Settings app, tap Default apps, then Default SMS app and select your preferred service from there. Since different Android phones sometimes have different menu arrangements, you can also search for the default SMS app setting. After making that selection, all of your incoming and outgoing messages will be handled by this app going forward, and you can drag it onto your home screen to replace Message Plus.
What if I want to use another chat service like WhatsApp, Signal or Facebook Messenger?
You still can use them alongside your new default SMS app — and in fact, you probably should. Due to the lack of cross-platform encryption support within the RCS standard, officials from the FBI and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency are recommending the use of encrypted chat apps like WhatsApp because of concerns that wireless carriers are becoming targeted by hackers during an ongoing cyberattack.
While cross-platform encryption could eventually come to the RCS standard, using a chat app that already has encryption built-in could further protect your data by keeping conversations only visible between sender and receiver.