Google Messages has been installed 5 billion times

In the midst of Google’s “#GetTheMessage” campaign, the company’s own RCS/SMS/MMS app for Android, Google Messages, has now been installed over five billion times.

Previously called “Android Messages,” Google Messages has become one of the most commonly used apps for SMS, MMS, and RCS messaging, offering a clean interface and useful features. For instance, the app can be paired with a desktop web client, allowing you to read and reply to messages from a tablet, PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

For nearly every app on the Play Store, Google offers a public statistic of approximately how many times it’s been installed, a figure that includes pre-installed apps but doesn’t count updates. Rather than show the exact download count, though, the Play Store shows milestone increments such as 1 million, 5 million, 10 million, etc.

The last time Google Messages reached such a milestone was in the spring of 2020 when the app achieved one billion downloads. At the time, the app was not installed by default on the majority of Android devices, aside from exceptions like Google’s Pixel phones.

The most significant change since 2020 is that Samsung adopted Google Messages as its default messaging app for phones like the Galaxy S22 series. It’s possible the popularity of Samsung’s phones may have significantly contributed to the rapid growth of Google Messages.

Meanwhile, Google Messages is also the primary gateway to RCS messaging, which is significantly more capable than its SMS and MMS predecessors. Other apps, typically provided directly by a carrier or OEM, offer RCS support and are able to do so because RCS is a standard, not a proprietary service.

For now, RCS is only available on Android devices, but Google is actively seeking to change that with its “#GetTheMessage” campaign, lobbying Apple to support the more secure and feature-filled messaging standard on iOS. The most recent volley in that effort parodied Apple’s advertising style to sell a fake “iPager,” likening the drawbacks of SMS to using a pager instead of a smartphone.

If the iPager analogy doesn’t sway Apple to support RCS, perhaps five billion Google Messages users will.