God. I swear my phone has been drowning in spam texts lately. Just yesterday I counted SEVENTEEN promotional messages - everything from "urgent" loan offers to some sketchy crypto thing I definitely never signed up for. My sister laughed when I showed her my inbox. "Welcome to 2025," she said. Thanks for the sympathy, sis.

But here's some actual good news for once.

Google Messages is rolling out this unsubscribe button that might actually work. And about bloody time too. I've spent the last three years hitting "STOP" on promotional texts only to keep getting them anyway. It's like shouting into teh void.

So what's this magical button all about?

The new feature adds an "unsubscribe" option that pops up right at the bottom of your chat when Google Messages thinks you're getting promotional garbage or other non-essential stuff. Sometimes it'll appear above the text field, other times it hides in the overflow menu (you know, those three little dots).

I tested it yesterday on some annoying promotional texts from a clothing store I shopped at ONE TIME back in 2019. Their "exclusive offers" have been haunting me ever since.

The unsubscribe option is available for RCS business messages if you're in one of these countries: UK, US, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Mexico, or Spain. Just tap it and you'll start the process of telling that sender to leave you alone forever. Well, that's the hope anyway.

Wait... what the heck is RCS again?

Listen. I'm not going to pretend everyone knows what RCS is (I had to look it up myself when I first heard about it). It stands for Rich Communication Services - basically the next evolution of text messaging that lets you send higher quality photos and videos. It's what Google's been pushing as their answer to Apple's iMessage.

Anyway, back to the unsubscribe thing.

The "Tell Me Why You Hate Me" questionnaire

Once you hit unsubscribe, Google gives you a little survey with options like "Not signed up," "Too many messages," "No longer interested," "Spam," or "Other." I picked "Too many messages" for the clothing store because sending me three texts a day about your 15% off sale is EXCESSIVE.

If you select "Spam," you'll get a "Report this sender" button. When you click that, Google Messages automatically sends "STOP" to the number and tells you that you "should no longer receive non-essential messages from that sender."

I'm not holding my breath though. These companies are slippery.

The fine print (because there's always fine print)

You'll still get "essential" messages even after unsubscribing. Things like:

- One-time passwords you've requested
- Boarding passes you actually want
- Confirmation that they received your unsubscribe request
- Information about managing your communication preferences

Some businesses might claim they can't process your unsubscribe request (convenient, right?) and will instead redirect you to your account settings to change notification preferences there.

Changed your mind? You can always resubscribe through the overflow menu. Though I can't imagine why anyone would voluntarily sign back up for spam.

Important distinction: This isn't blocking

This unsubscribe feature isn't the same as blocking someone. Google Messages doesn't automatically detect spam yet (surprising for a company that knows what I'm thinking before I do). So you'll need to manually identify what's annoying you.

And here's the kicker - this only works in the Google Messages app specifically. If you're using the default messaging app on your Samsung or iPhone, you're out of luck. Sorry.

My two cents after trying it

I've unsubscribed from 4 different senders since discovering this feature. So far, 3 have actually stopped messaging me. The fourth one? They sent me a "We're sorry to see you go" text... followed by another promotional message 6 hours later. I feel like they're not really getting the point.

For what it's worth, I spent $43 last year on one of those "spam blocking" apps that did absolutely nothing except drain my battery. This built-in solution seems to work better, and it's free. Small victories.

Now if only there was a button to unsubscribe from my neighbor's 3am guitar practice...