Google Messages removing per-contact RCS toggle, beta shows
Google Messages removing per-contact RCS toggle control looks more likely after a beta teardown turned up interface strings warning that the setting "is going away." A recent APK teardown surfaced the strings two days ago, and Android Police reported on the finding yesterday, crediting the discovery to a beta analysis from Android Authority. The strings come from a beta build, not a public release, and Google hasn't confirmed, announced, or scheduled any change.
The setting in question is the "Only send SMS & MMS messages" toggle, the one that lets a user force a single conversation back to plain texting while RCS keeps running everywhere else. XDA Developers said it contacted Google for confirmation, and no response appears in the available reporting as of yesterday. If this applies to you, it's because you use Google Messages on Android and currently rely on that per-contact toggle for at least one conversation, not because RCS itself is going anywhere.
What the leaked Google Messages beta code shows
Google Messages currently displays the toggle inside each conversation's details screen. Switching it on overrides the app's default RCS behavior for that one chat, forcing it back to carrier texting while RCS remains enabled elsewhere, per Android Police.
That's the control the teardown says is being retired. Leaked banner strings tied to the identifier "force_sms_home_banner" warn that "the 'Only send SMS & MMS messages' setting is going away. Switch now, or let it update automatically," per Android Police. Companion strings add a "Switch to RCS chats now" title, a "Switch now" button, and a "Dismiss" option.
Those are embedded UI strings pulled from an unreleased beta build, specifically messages.android_20261002_00_RC00.phone.openbeta_dynamic, not a changelog entry or a live feature flag. They describe a banner that would warn affected users their forced-SMS setting is disappearing, and that the conversation switches to RCS automatically unless someone acts first. Code sitting in an unreleased build carries more weight than a rumor, but it still isn't a shipped feature. The accurate framing is that Google Messages appears to be preparing to remove the per-contact toggle, not that it already has.
What Google Messages removing per-contact RCS toggle would change
If the banner strings reach a stable release, the conversation-level option disappears and two choices remain: turn RCS off entirely across every chat, or leave it enabled for every eligible contact, per Android Police and XDA Developers. Neither report mentions a replacement setting that would let someone disable RCS for a specific contact while keeping it running everywhere else. That exact function is what's being cut.
A separate Google Messages SMS MMS fallback would stay in place. Google Messages can already fall back to SMS or MMS when RCS delivery fails, and that mechanism is expected to keep working the same way after the change, per XDA Developers. It behaves differently from the toggle being removed: it only kicks in reactively, after a message fails to send, rather than letting someone set a standing preference for one contact in advance.
The code doesn't say when any of this takes effect. Android Police notes the strings include no cutoff date for the automatic switch, and existing conversation history won't be lost if someone ignores the banner instead of tapping "Switch now."
Why some users relied on the per-contact toggle
Android Police frames the disappearing setting as a practical spam tool, arguing that forcing a single contact onto SMS and MMS lets someone sidestep unwanted RCS messages without touching the rest of their inbox, per its reporting. That's the outlet's own editorial take rather than a measured spam statistic, but it names a real use case: isolating one unwanted contact instead of flipping a switch that affects every conversation at once.
XDA points to a different motivation, citing Reddit threads where users describe RCS messages failing to send or arrive with specific contacts, per its coverage. Those reports are anecdotal, not measured failure-rate data, and they don't establish that RCS delivery is broadly unreliable. They do explain why some users treat the per-chat SMS fallback as a workaround for one problem conversation rather than a blanket complaint about the protocol.
Either way, removing the middle option turns this into an all-or-nothing call. RCS already depends on region, carrier support, and the feature being switched on in the first place, something Google has acknowledged in its own usage disclosures (Google). None of that changes with this update, but it means an all-or-nothing RCS choice will carry different stakes depending on where someone lives and which carrier they use.
Where this fits with Google's RCS plans
RCS isn't a side feature for Google. More than a billion RCS messages are sent every day in the U.S., based on a 28-day average Google reported last year (Google), and Google and Apple began rolling out end-to-end encrypted RCS in beta earlier this year, covering iPhone users on iOS 26.5 and Android users on current Google Messages builds (Google). Google first rolled out RCS in 2019, bypassing carriers in several regions, and Apple didn't add baseline RCS support until iOS 18 arrived in 2024, per XDA Developers. One possible effect of cutting per-chat exceptions is that more conversations default into RCS by design rather than by accident, though none of the available reporting confirms that as Google's actual motive for this specific change.
What to check before anything changes
This affects Google Messages specifically, not every Android texting app and not RCS as an industry standard. If you've never touched the per-contact toggle, there's nothing to prepare for.
If you're not sure, open the conversation details for any contact you'd want kept on SMS or MMS and look for "Only send SMS & MMS messages" in that chat's settings. Note which conversations use it, since those are the ones that would switch back to RCS automatically if the banner described in the leaked strings reaches a stable release.
Based on what's confirmed so far, there's no workaround that would let a future version of Google Messages keep SMS/MMS forced on just one contact. The supported choices would be leaving RCS enabled for everyone, disabling it everywhere, or depending on automatic SMS/MMS fallback after a failed delivery. Don't touch your global RCS settings based on a beta-code teardown. Nothing here is live, Google hasn't confirmed a rollout, and the leaked strings don't specify a timeline, a region, or which devices get the change first. Watch for the in-app banner the strings describe, and confirm it actually shows up on your own phone before assuming the per-chat toggle is already gone.
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