Do you have an Android phone? You should use Hangouts for SMS!
It’s been a while since SMS was activated in the Hangouts Android app. On some devices like the Nexus 5, it is now the only SMS application that comes installed.
Hangouts + SMS offers numerous benefits over typical stock messaging apps, and you’ll miss out on a lot if you’re not using it. With just a few simple steps, you can get a lot out of this versatile messaging powerhouse.
However, this remarkably versatile combination appears to be quite underused, with many users disabling the feature after seeing annoying double notifications, reverting back to the “Stock” messaging app.
Take a look at some of the benefits:
- Hangouts automatically detects which contacts are online and automatically switches to Chat from SMS and vice versa = potential savings on your SMS bills.
- You can log into multiple devices with the same Google ID, and your Hangouts conversations will replicate across all of them, including Android, iPhone, and even iPad. This is something that very few messaging apps offer (WhatsApp and WeChat, I’m looking at you!), And it’s very convenient, especially since:
- A Hangouts desktop app is also available, with the Google Chrome browser.
Consider this:
You start a chat on your mobile and assume you need to send a photo that is currently on your PC. You can simply open Chrome -> Hangouts and send it to the same chat thread, which will instantly sync with the desktop app, and then go back to the mobile device to continue with the rest of the chat! And you can do this with any combination of devices that you have signed in to with your Google ID.
But to accomplish all of this mojo chat, there are a couple of additional steps you need to take in addition to enabling SMS in Hangouts:
- Disable notifications in any previously installed SMS application. The option should be available in your settings menu. This will avoid double notifications.
- Open the Google+ application on your Android device at least once, and allow when it asks for permission to sync contacts with your device. Hangouts works with Google+, and once syncing is enabled, it will automatically update with your Google+ account contact details, which is perfect.
What’s more,
- To continue chats on the desktop, open the Chrome web browser and install Hangouts from the Chrome web store.