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Trying out the new Hangouts, and I'm not liking a few things:

- You can't paste anything, which is very weird. I took a screenshot, which on my GS4 it automatically copies it for pasting into something. The Paste option doesn't appear in the Hangouts SMS text box.

- You can't change the color of the thread background, like in the stock Messages app

- The vibration for new texts is unusually long for no reason

- No number badges for new unread messages on the homescreen icon


Going to keep using it for a little while longer to see how things go. One thing my iPhone-using friend is liking with me using Hangouts is that he can finally see and use emoticons. With the stock SMS app they never went thru, but it Hangouts they work just fine on both devices.

I haven't had any problems with emojis using Textra. People w/ iPhones get them just fine.
 
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Another thing Hangouts doesn't do is put new texts on the lockscreen like the stock messages app does on the GS4. That's a deal breaker for me, as I tap the new message box to quickly unlock my phone to go straight to the new message. It seems like Hangouts brings just the bare minimum SMS features, which may be fine for some, but not me.

So it's gonna suck when Hangouts is the default unless they add some of these common features.
 
Another thing Hangouts doesn't do is put new texts on the lockscreen like the stock messages app does on the GS4. That's a deal breaker for me, as I tap the new message box to quickly unlock my phone to go straight to the new message. It seems like Hangouts brings just the bare minimum SMS features, which may be fine for some, but not me.

So it's gonna suck when Hangouts is the default unless they add some of these common features.

You can turn off SMS in the Hangouts settings, and set your own default SMS. Google gives you the choice.
 
Another thing I'm already starting to miss is the quick reply for SMS. Is there some way to turn it on that I'm not seeing?
 
Not necessarily. If it's running TouchWiz, it'll have Samsung's TouchWiz SMS app.

No?

That isn't necessarily true.

Samsung could decide it's easier, and more beneficial, to just make it into Hangouts. We don't know what the next version of Touchwiz, which is what will ship with 4.4 when devices get it, holds.
 
I personally still prefer the messaging app from cyanogenmod over hangouts. The new mms framework though should make it easier to port the aosp mms client to all 4.4 phones which is good though.

On another note, with the new exchange and email apks from 4.4, multiple calendar sync finally works perfectly. Before only the primary calendar would sync.
 
That isn't necessarily true.

Samsung could decide it's easier, and more beneficial, to just make it into Hangouts. We don't know what the next version of Touchwiz, which is what will ship with 4.4 when devices get it, holds.

I see. Interesting. Hopefully Hangouts keeps improving and growing.
 
I'm sure hangouts will improve fast. It was poor when it first replaced talk. You couldn't even change your picture or status on the desktop version.
 
Hangouts seems pretty half assed and half baked for something that's completely replacing a perfectly good and stable sms app. Google should have done more to get it ready for primetime given Hangouts importance to android going forward.
 
Hangouts seems pretty half assed and half baked for something that's completely replacing a perfectly good and stable sms app. Google should have done more to get it ready for primetime given Hangouts importance to android going forward.

I feel the same. Its lacking very basic functionality even simple text size etc..
 
I don't know what some of you guys are talking about. I get threaded messages in hangouts and the option to paste definitely works.

egysajep.jpg
 
I couldn't get paste to work the first time but after reinstalling it, it's working now. Same with the new keyboard. I agree, the dull gray look is, well, dull. But is it me or do the keys look bigger? It is pretty accurate, I'll give it that.
 
That's not what I mean. Try sending a text to someone and then sending a "hangouts" message to the same person. Instead of having single thread with both messages in it, you end up with two threads to the same person - one for the sms and the other for the hangouts.

They could combine them into a single thread which would make messaging so
much simpler.

I don't know what some of you guys are talking about. I get threaded messages in hangouts and the option to paste definitely works.

Image
 
That's not what I mean. Try sending a text to someone and then sending a "hangouts" message to the same person. Instead of having single thread with both messages in it, you end up with two threads to the same person - one for the sms and the other for the hangouts.

They could combine them into a single thread which would make messaging so
much simpler.

Ah, I see what you mean now. i actually like that it's separated, personally. I know iMessage uses colors to tell the difference, which could work too. Google could easily implement something similar or just use the little "SMS" tag on the messages themselves if they're SMS.

Ultimately, I don't think it's a big deal. If a person is on Hangouts, you'd use Hangouts with him exclusively anyway, no? Why would you care to want to go between Hangouts and SMS on purpose?

But I suppose a toggle option to "Thread All Messages" in the settings would be ideal.
 
I wonder if this means that soon we're going to be able to send SMS from our laptops/desktops.
 
That's not what I mean. Try sending a text to someone and then sending a "hangouts" message to the same person. Instead of having single thread with both messages in it, you end up with two threads to the same person - one for the sms and the other for the hangouts.

They could combine them into a single thread which would make messaging so
much simpler.

Okay that makes more sense and I would agree. I was wondering why people were claiming it wasn't threaded. I thought that was the standard since feature phones. lol

So you want "combined" threaded messaging right?
 
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