Following Verizon’s decision to kill off its in-house Message+ texting app, AT&T is following suit, or technically already has. Making good on a promise to sunset the AT&T Messages app by the end of 2024, the carrier confirmed to CNET that it officially reached its end of life on December 4.
At time of writing, AT&T’s messaging app isn’t on either the iPhone App Store or Google Play Store. Cloud-based text backups are disappearing, but like with Verizon, all your texts will still be stored on your phone’s local storage. AT&T says that they should automatically transfer to your new default messaging app.
As for that new messaging app, AT&T is suggesting Google Messages for Android users (iPhone users should already be on iMessage), which offers end-to-end encryption for other Google Message users. Upon downloading and opening it, you should get a prompt to set it as your default, but if not, you can change your default later in settings. The specific process varies depending on which phone you have, but the option will generally be under Settings > Apps > Default SMS app.
Generally, the change shouldn’t take AT&T customers by surprise, as AT&T says it’s been sending monthly texts about the shutdown since around September. The shutdown also seems to have significantly less buzz about it online than Verizon’s, not appearing on any of the top threads in the r/dumbphones subreddit, where passionate Verizon fans were expressing their complaints about the Message+ shutdown just earlier this week. The r/att subreddit is also quiet on the shutdown, so it’s likely any drama has already passed.
As for the reasoning behind the change, it likely has to do with RCS, a newer messaging standard that enables features like typing indicators and high-resolution media. While RCS is a universal standard, it can have minor tweaks from company to company, especially when it comes to encryption or how texting or cross-platform communication works. Consolidating users under Google Messages helps ensure everyone is playing by the same rules, which reduces hiccups.
That said, there are alternatives if you’d rather de-Google your phone.
Best non-Google messaging alternatives
For traditional texting, Google alternatives are starting to disappear with the transition to RCS, but if you’re OK sticking with SMS, Textra SMS is a popular alternative with a minimalistic and easy-to-navigate interface. You’ll lose features like those typing indicators, and your texts won’t be encrypted, but the app is a smooth way to text like you used to back in the good old days.
Ideally, though, you should supplement texting with an instant messaging app. These apps will only work when you have a data connection, but are the most likely to have the strongest encryption. Popular options include WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta, and Signal, which is owned by a nonprofit, although I personally enjoy Line, a Japanese app that has access to some cute stickers not available on WhatsApp.
