Will you use Google Messages more now that it will be the default option for most U.S. Android phones?

Yesterday, news broke that Verizon will be switching to offer Google Messages as its default messaging app for RCS, beginning in 2022. This marks the third of the big three carriers in the U.S. to make such a move and follows in the footsteps of T-Mobile and AT&T.

This is fantastic news for Android users, as it means that the majority of phones sold in the U.S., be they cheap devices or the best Android phones, will be able to communicate reliably and securely with each other without needing to download a third-party messaging app.

This is thanks in part to Google bringing end-to-end encrypted messaging (E2E) to the Google Messages app. E2E is a feature that has long been supported on other popular messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal, and even on Apple's iMessage. It's long felt like using the default messaging app is the easiest thing to do for most phone buyers, so with this move you shouldn't have to worry as much about trying to convince your friends and family to switch to another messaging app.

Here at AC, we were pretty psyched about this latest development, as were several members of the AC forums.