Samsung has rolled out the latest update for ChatON, which after looking at the “what’s new” section of the Play Store listing, this appears to be in response to the recent Hangouts update. Basically, that is to say Samsung ChatON now integrates with text and picture messaging. And similar to what many have become familiar with from the Hangouts update, ChatON users will see a combined message and chat list.

That being said, while the SMS/MMS integration with Hangouts is rolling out to a wide variety of users, the Samsung ChatON message integration is only available for a select few markets at this time. According to Samsung, those include Germany and Brazil. So far there hasn’t been any indication as to when, or if, this message integration will be coming available for those in other markets. It would seem that Samsung will be monitoring the uptake though.

Also worth mentioning, while we cater to the Android crowd here, we suspect some of you may have some friends that use iOS. Samsung hasn’t yet integrated the SMS/MMS messaging into the iOS version of ChatON. Shifting back to the currently available Android support and we find this will be available on devices running Ice Cream Sandwich or later. Taking that a step further and we find word from Samsung about how this will offer “best performance” for those with a Galaxy Note 3 or Note II as well as a Galaxy S 4 or S III.

Samsung also has a warning for those with Hangouts or other messaging apps installed. Here they have said if you have any of these other apps installed and receive an incoming SMS/MMS message, that it “might be displayed abnormally.” As one would suspect here, Samsung recommends not getting SMS/MMS notifications from other apps while also using ChatON.

Seems like a good way to bring some additional focus to ChatON, while at the same time pulling people away from other apps. The other play here is how this ChatON update now allows users to communicate with others — even if those others aren’t using ChatON. Simply put, this update means the excuse of not having any friends willing/able to use ChatON has been removed.

SOURCE: Google Play Store

3 COMMENTS

  1. That seems like an interesting idea once Samsung has more new and existing devices running KitKat. Since one of the new features is the ability to choose the default SMS app, Galaxy devices running KitKat will have the capability to have a Samsung-centric messaging service. It will also probably have Google Hangouts, so that will allow messaging to non-Samsung Android devices as well.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.