In an effort to keep up with Google Hangouts on Android, Samsung has baked SMS and MMS integration into the latest version of its ChatON messaging app. The service will now roll your instant messages and traditional text messages into one conversation, so you only need to keep up with one thread.

The new feature is only available in Germany and Brazil for now, but it will surely be made available in other markets soon. The question is, will anyone actually use it?

Not everyone likes having their text messages and instant messages rolled into one, and since Google made this the default approach in Android 4.4 KitKat, it has brought mixed reactions — especially due to the fact that Google’s implementation of SMS integration in Hangouts is far from perfect.

Facebook learned this lesson the hard way, and it recently chose to leave out SMS integration when it launched its brand new Facebook Messenger app for Android a few weeks ago.

The difference between Hangouts and ChatON is that SMS integration is completely optional with the latter; you can choose whether you wish to see your SMS and MMS messages inside the app, or whether you’d like to keep them separate.

You’ll need a smartphone running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and above if you do want to take advantage of the new feature. Samsung says it works best on its own Galaxy S4, Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note 3, and Galaxy Note II devices.

You’ll find the ChatON update via Google Play or the Samsung Apps service in the markets mentioned above. Look out for it in other countries in the coming weeks.

• SourceGoogle Play
• ViaSamMobile