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Google has decided to push hangouts for enterprise, or something, and now there's a big obnoxious message that takes up half the Hangouts app whenever I open it into the "conversations" view.

I use a google voice number for all my calls and texting in the US (calls to my google voice number are forwarded to whatever local carrier number I have at the time, texts are done over Data but appear to be from my google voice number to whoever gets a message from me). I wish to maintain this paradigm.

In compliance with Google's indecisiveness, I tried switching over to the Android "Google Voice" app, but none of my 2+ years of conversation history on Hangouts is available there. So, I would like to, as seamlessly as possible, continue to text using my Google Voice number using whatever app Google has decided I should be using now.

Which app should I use for texting now, and how can I port my Hangouts conversation history to that app? Bonus points if I can use that app on desktop (via browser or otherwise) to text from my Google Voice number (as I could with Hangouts).

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Hangouts still works for texting to and from Google Voice only, and I don't think that is supposed to go away (at least not anytime soon)... it doesn't work as your default SIM carrier's SMS/MMS app anymore. I use it daily and just updated yesterday and it still works with the Google Voice number.

I had the Google Voice app installed, but saw no advantage to it over Hangouts so I continue to use Hangouts and the Hangouts Dialer app and have had no issues so far. That may change later, but for the foreseeable future it is working with Google Voice only.

Google Voice users will also be affected, but not as much as Hangouts-only users. The rule only applies to messages sent and received with your carrier phone number—all SMS messages sent with your Google Voice number will remain unaffected. "For SMS users using Google Voice on Hangouts on Android Google Voice users who also send carrier SMS messages will need to choose another default messaging app. Their Google Voice messages will be unaffected and will still be available in Google Hangouts," the e-mail states. "For Google Voice users on Hangouts on Android Google Voice users who do not use carrier SMS, text messaging will not be affected and no notification will be shown." - Source

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  • I saw this as well, but does your hangouts still have the huge obnoxious "this is going away" message taking up half your hangouts screen? It's driving me insane. Hence my desire to switch
    – Caleb Jay
    Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 18:53
  • @komali_2 Remember that when you switched SMS to Hangouts years ago there was a message saying that SMS/MMS messages will only be stored LOCALLY (meaning in the app) and not online. As of now there is no way to export them or move them to another app as they are not stored in the normal SMS database.
    – acejavelin
    Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 18:58
  • @komali_2 No, the warning is gone. I use a different app for my carrier's SMS app, as soon as I changed it so that was the default app the message went away, but SMS via Google Voice still works in Hangouts only.
    – acejavelin
    Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 18:59
  • Is that the case though, for google voice messages?
    – Caleb Jay
    Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 20:05
  • @komali_2 Hangouts still works for Google Voice SMS/MMS, both send and receive, and phone calls, voicemail messages, etc. But Hangouts no longer works (or won't as of May 22) for SMS with my AT&T phone number, I switched back to the default Motorola Messaging app. Is that what you are asking me?
    – acejavelin
    Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 20:12

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