I have an Android and Samsung is supposedly discontinuing the default texting app and insisting we switch to the Google version. I would sooner welcome a bullet into my brain than welcome another unnecessary Google service into my phone, so I'm looking for viable alternatives. It's looking bleak. I don't mind paying for an app if it's a one time purchase, but even among the non-free options, I see people constantly complaining of technical issues. Mainly, I see people saying messages are either not receiving or not sending. AKA, the only feature in the app that matters is unreliable. I don't give a single stuff about RCS or whatever it's called, good old fashioned SMS was good enough for Jesus and it's good enough for me. I just want to text people normally without all this psycho stuff.
I'm wondering if this is one of those "accept the things I cannot change" lessons and it would be less of a headache for me in the longrun to just accept the Google app. Does anyone here use Google Messages? Is it actually that bad? I'm not actually all that concerned with privacy anymore; Any business I don't want feds knowing about isn't going on my phone anyway. Personalized ads don't bother me because I block all ads and I am spiritually immune to all forms of marketing. I just don't want a bloated horrible experience which will insist on interconnecting with a dozen unrelated accounts and bombard me with ai trash. Any texting app that asks me for an email address belongs in a dumpster.
The first person to tell me to switch to Apple gets a swift kick in the balls free of charge.
