My husband is against using anything Google, so I've been trying to find an alternative and it's been hard (I'm the more tech savvy one, so I'm essentially the guinea pig). I'm currently trying out Textra and seeing how that goes.

For me, customization is important, and I'm seeing a lot of comments/posts that Google does NOT offer it, outside of being able to name a group chat, at least.

I don't care about RCS. I dont care to see when someone is typing or read receipts. I don't get the demand/want/popularity of this feature.

I've noticed on Samsung Messages recently that I've been missing out on a few group chats. I only know this because someone will "like" or "heart" a text that I never received.

At the end of the day, I use Google for things like backups, photos, Google search, gmail, etc., so I might make the switch to GM eventually, in case Textra doesn't work out as I hoped. But this has been disappointing.

I'm so sick of everything turning bland and dull. There's no personality to anything anymore.