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As someone who does not have unlimited SMS and also communicates with many international phone numbers, this is a step backwards. The unification of hangouts and SMS allowed me to control which medium my messages took, which saves me a lot of money and allows me to stay in touch wherever I am in the world. Before, I had to straddle two apps to make this happen. With Hangouts, it's all one interface and conversation threads are combined.

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I imagine that the idea of this app is that it take over from the previous AOSP messaging app, much like Chrome > Browser, and Photos > Gallery.

It's just Google's continuation of keeping everything under their roof.

I think you can still use Hangouts for SMS messages just fine. I've heard the main reason Google made this app was to please US carriers who want to push a standalone SMS app so people spend more sending SMS messages instead of saving money when on wifi.

Yup. Hangouts and any other SMS client can be set as default. This was done for the carriers and I have no intention on using it.

this is big and clears alot up for me. been scratching my head about why Messenger even exists. And not alot said here or otherwise about why.

Will continue to ignore then because Hangouts really does cover everything

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