How To Change Galaxy S8 Text Message App

Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus are considered some of the best smartphones from Samsung and a serious candidate for the best smartphone of the year 2017. Like many other phones, they come with a series of pre-installed apps, specifically designed by Samsung, carrying particular design traits and features.

In this case, we are talking about the so-called Messages app, the stock messages app from Samsung for its latest flagships, an option that perfectly complements the new Android operating system.

In theory, most stock apps come with some basic features and aren’t particularly attractive, nor they allow users to customize them.

In practice, this stock app for Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus has some extra features that will allow you to control it much easier. For instance, if you are reading a message and just put the phone to the year, it will automatically call that contact. In addition to this, you also have a quick control feature that lets you swipe the display and initiate a call.

While Messages is superior to other built-in apps, it is still far from the third-party messaging apps that you can download from the Play Store. Those will typically let you set custom themes or backgrounds, adjust the font, add color – in a nutshell, to completely change the way that the messages look and feel.

Which would be the best alternative to Messages is hard to tell, though not impossible. One can always try a couple of apps and see which one is more enjoyable. In today’s article, we’d like to show you how to set up your new messaging app for Samsung Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8 Plus, as the default app.

With older Android versions, adding a new app would have automatically led you to receive double notifications with every new message. But with the latest OS version, you cannot have two default apps at the same time. And even if you install a new app, the stock messaging app from Samsung will remain active, unless you set the other one as default.

How to change the Galaxy S8/S8 Plus text message app

Launch the Google Play Store and search for text message apps;
Download one or several different apps – Textra, Chomp or GoSMS might draw your attention as they are among the most popular options;
Launch the newly installed app and pay attention to the first notifications you’re getting or options you have at hand;
- Textra, for instance, has a large button with the Set as Default label on it that you will see the first time when you launch the app;
If your third-party messaging app doesn’t have such an option, you will have to manually set it as default by taking the following steps:
- Access the general Settings of your smartphone;
- Go to the Device section;
- Select Applications;
- Tap on Default Applications;
- Tap on the Messaging App;
- In the newly opened window, you should see a list of the available messaging apps, the third-party ones that you just downloaded included;
  - If all you see are the Samsung Messages app and the Google Hangouts app, it means that you didn’t actually install a third-party app;
- Select the messaging app that you want to use as default;
- Leave the menus and you’re done.

From this moment on, your Samsung Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8 Plus should use as the main messaging app the app that you just selected. Go ahead and personalize your new app adding color, fonts, bubble colors and everything else you have at hand.