Across several Android-focused outlets, a quiet story is taking shape around Google Messages: the app's long-tangled settings menu may finally be tidied, and along with it a particular control that lets people choose plain SMS over RCS for individual conversations may be removed. Nothing has yet come from Google itself, so the account rests on reports and the reactions they stir, some relieved and some wary. It is the familiar tension of software growing gradually more complicated and then being pruned, where each simplification also decides what a person is still permitted to choose.
Google Messages Moves to Simplify Its Cluttered Settings Menu
A tidier menu, and possibly one fewer control
Mark
So what's actually happening with Google Messages?
Mimi
Several Android outlets report Google is reworking the settings menu to make it less cluttered. Android Authority and Sammy Fans both say it's finally being fixed.
Mark
Why does a settings menu make news?
Mimi
Because it's been called messy for a long time, and because the reports say the cleanup arrives alongside an RCS change and the possible loss of the per-contact SMS switch.
Luke
Before we go further, who is saying this? Is it Google?
Mimi
No. It's outlets reporting that Google is working on it. No official statement appears in what we have.
Mark
What does the SMS switch do?
Mimi
It lets you choose, contact by contact, whether to use SMS instead of RCS. SammyGuru says Google is preparing to drop it.
Luke
Preparing is not shipped. And we don't know if the removal is part of the menu cleanup or a separate decision.
Mark
And the reaction?
Mimi
Split. PhoneArena says the app looks cleaner. Android Police says the RCS change will make Messages a lot worse, and the writer says they hate it.
Luke
That's one writer's opinion. It's useful as a signal of who might be unhappy, but it isn't evidence of how many users will be.
Mark
What should we watch for?
Mimi
Official confirmation of the new layout, and whether the SMS switch actually disappears.
The Pulse
- Reports say Google Messages is working to clean up a settings menu that has long been seen as cluttered and hard to navigate.
- A planned removal of the per-contact SMS switch has drawn criticism from users who rely on choosing plain SMS for specific conversations.
- Android Police's pointed opinion that the latest RCS change will make Messages worse sits against coverage that welcomes the menu overhaul as a fix.
- No official announcement, layout, or release date has been published, so the redesign and the switch's fate remain unconfirmed.
- The next signal to watch is whether Google confirms the new settings layout and whether the SMS switch actually ships out of the app.
Across several Android-focused outlets, a quiet story is taking shape around Google Messages: the app's long-tangled settings menu may finally be tidied, and along with it a particular control that lets people choose plain SMS over RCS for individual conversations may be removed. Nothing has yet come from Google itself, so the account rests on reports and the reactions they stir, some relieved and some wary. It is the familiar tension of software growing gradually more complicated and then being pruned, where each simplification also decides what a person is still permitted to choose.
Several Android-focused outlets are reporting the same thing: Google is reworking the settings menu in Google Messages, a part of the app that has long been seen as cluttered, and the changes may go beyond a tidier layout. The headlines describe an update that finally cleans up the menu and leaves the app looking cleaner, but the available reporting does not explain how the new menu is organized, which options move, or which ones disappear.
The cleanup is not the only change under discussion. One report says Google Messages is preparing to drop its per-contact SMS switch, the control that lets a user decide, conversation by conversation, whether to fall back to plain SMS instead of RCS, the newer messaging standard. The removal is described as planned, and some users have already criticized it.
The reactions split. One outlet frames the menu overhaul as a welcome fix, while Android Police is openly hostile to the latest RCS change and says it will make Messages a lot worse. Whether the menu cleanup and the switch's removal are connected, or are separate RCS decisions, is not made clear.
Everything here comes from reporting rather than from Google, and nothing yet amounts to an official announcement, a release date, or a company statement. Two things remain to watch: whether Google confirms and shows the redesigned settings, and whether the per-contact SMS switch truly leaves the app, and if it does, how the company explains that to the people who use it.
Several Android-focused outlets are now reporting the same thing: Google is working on the settings menu in Google Messages, the app's long-cluttered back room, and the changes may reach beyond a tidier layout.
The headlines tell the story in pieces. Android Authority reports that Google Messages is working to finally clean up its messy settings menu. Sammy Fans runs a nearly identical framing, saying the app is finally fixing that menu. PhoneArena describes an update that leaves the app looking cleaner. These are the source's only descriptions of the redesign, and they are headlines rather than full accounts. The material available here does not spell out how the new menu is organized, which options move, or which disappear.
The cleanup is not the only change being discussed. SammyGuru reports that Google Messages is preparing to drop its per-contact SMS switch. That control lets a user decide, conversation by conversation, whether to fall back to plain SMS instead of using RCS, the newer messaging standard. Reports describe its removal as planned, and some users have criticized it.
Android Police is the sharpest dissenter. Its headline calls Google's latest RCS change something that is about to make Messages a lot worse, and the writer says outright that they hate it. The piece is an opinion about the direction of the app, and it appears alongside coverage that treats the menu overhaul as a welcome fix.
So the same cluster of reporting holds two reactions at once. One is relief that a menu long seen as messy may finally be simplified. The other is concern that a specific control, the per-contact SMS switch, may be taken away in the process. Whether the two are connected, and whether the switch's removal is part of the settings cleanup or a separate RCS decision, is not made clear in the material available.
What is clear is the sourcing. The claims come from multiple Android-focused outlets rather than from Google, and the language throughout is that Google is working on, preparing, or about to make these changes. Nothing in the available text is an official announcement, a release date, or a statement from the company.
That leaves two things to watch. One is whether Google confirms the redesigned settings layout and shows what it actually looks like. The other is whether the per-contact SMS switch really ships out of the app, and if it does, how Google explains the change to people who use it.
Notable Quotes
Google's latest RCS change is about to make Messages a lot worse; I hate it.— Android Police headline
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