Google Messages may soon support ‘Call and Message Continuity’ on Samsung Galaxy phones

Kyle Bradshaw | Oct 29 2020 - 1:51 pm PT

For a few years now, Samsung’s Galaxy Tabs have been able to send and receive calls and text messages from Galaxy phones. While this feature, called “Call and Message Continuity,” currently requires you to use Samsung Messages, it looks like Google Messages may soon gain support for this same continuity.

About APK Insight: In this “APK Insight” post, we’ve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), we’re able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We’ll try to enable those that are closer to being finished, however, to show you how they’ll look in the case that they do ship. With that in mind, read on.

Call and Message Continuity

On select Samsung Galaxy phones, you can set up Call and Message Continuity which lets you send and receive text messages, as well as answer or place phone calls, from a WiFI-connected Galaxy Tab or even smartwatches like the Galaxy Watch Active 2. However, as this requires you to use Samsung Messages as your default app, you’re unable to use Google Messages features like Messages for Web or Google’s carrier-independent RCS.

Today, Google Messages version 6.9 “Fir” rolled out to those in the app’s beta testing program. In it, we find two new references to “CMC” that we believe may be referring to the Call and Message Continuity features of Samsung Galaxy phones and tablets.

<string name=”cmc_consent_key”>cmc_consent_key</string>
<string name=”cmc_consent_settings_title”>Text on Galaxy devices</string>

Unfortunately, that’s where the trail goes cold for now, as neither the Google Messages app nor Samsung’s Call and Message Continuity app has any clear references to one another.

If this is indeed the beginnings of Google Messages supporting Call and Message Continuity, the support will likely only be for owners of Samsung phones to be able to switch their default messaging app to Google Messages. Galaxy Tabs and other connected devices will likely still need to use the Samsung Messages app to send and receive the messages shared through Continuity.