Android users who are jealous of iMessage need to know about Google's 'Messages for web' service, which lets you text from almost any computer

Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider

It might be a good idea to clear your Google search history on your Android device to ensure your privacy.

• Google's Messages for web service, which lets you send and receive text messages that you normally get on your Android phone, has greatly improved since its launch in 2018.
• It helps bridge the gap between Apple's excellent iMessage ecosystem and Android.
• Messages for web works on Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft's Edge, and even Safari.
• Unlike Apple's iMessage, Messages for web works on any computer, even a Mac, as it works from a web browser.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Back in the middle of 2018, Google rolled out a web service called "Messages for web," which was designed to let you send and receive text messages in a tab on your web browser.

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At launch, Messages for web wasn't very good. It worked, but it wasn't very reliable. Several texts didn't send properly, and I missed a bunch of text messages, too. It clearly wasn't the solution that would bring the iMessage functionality to the Android ecosystem, and I gave it up pretty quickly.

Fast forward to late 2019 when I recently started using Messages for web again, and I can gleefully report that it's actually pretty good now. I can send and receive photos, videos, GIFs, emoji, sticker, and good old-fashioned text messages, as well as group messages almost entirely reliably. There's only been a couple instances where a message didn't send, but I'm attributing that to the fact that I have Messages on at least a half-dozen computers at the moment.

It's well worth checking out whether you tried it around launch time and dropped, like I did, or if this is the first time you're hearing about it.

Messages for web works on Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and even Apple's Safari web browser. Since Messages works in a web browser, even Android users who use Apple computers can use it, too.

It also seems to work pretty well when I switch between all the computers I'm testing and using. Occasionally, I'll get a notification asking me if I want to "Use Messages for web here?" when I switch computers, and simply clicking "Use here" syncs all my messages.

Still, it's a great start to getting the Android ecosystem on par with Apple's, even if it was a little rocky at first. And I wouldn't be surprised if some kind of calling feature makes its way to Messages for web in the future.

It's incredibly easy to set up. Here's how to do it: