How To Merge SMS Conversations In Hangouts

How to Merge SMS Conversations in Hangouts

BY GreenBot Staff

GreenBot Staff

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Published 18 Aug 2015

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Google Hangouts app can handle all your SMS conversations and instant messages. So you don’t have to jump back and forth between different apps. With the nice visual update in version 4.0, there’s even more reason to take advantage of this feature. Also, Hangouts can serve as the hub for receiving, making phone calls, and SMS/MMS messages with your Voice number. You’ll also need the Hangouts Dialer for calls.

To enable these features, ensure you have the latest version of Hangouts, go to the slide-out menu, and select Settings. Then, you’ll need to choose Hangouts as your default texting app. If it’s not set up for this, touch SMS disabled, then select Hangouts from your installed texting applications. Next, select Enable merged conversations. This will combine SMS messages and Hangouts conversations with a contact into the exact string. When replying to a message. Touch the icon at the very left of the screen to switch between Hangouts, SMS, or Voice.

hangouts 1 — You can message others via Hangouts, your carrier number, or Voice.

Smart Reply

To also use Voice, under Account settings, select your account instead of just SMS as the option. This will allow you to choose between your carrier or Voice number to reply to texts. If you pick Smart Reply. Hangouts will automatically respond with the number the text was sent.

hangouts 2 — If you don’t want to combine Hangouts, instant messages, and SMS, then select the un-merge option from the drop-down menu.

In my experience, merged conversations are a mixed bag. It’s nice to not have to hop back and forth between two strings for the same person. However, the conversation can get somewhat disjointed. Especially if that person doesn’t use Hangouts much on their mobile device. You can, fortunately, un-merge a specific conversation. Touch the menu button at the top right and select Un-merge SMS. Then, the conversations will break apart into two separate strings.