Like most Google apps, Messages A/B tests many features. However, it takes the RCS/SMS client a rather long time to actually launch these capabilities in stable even after they are announced.
Recent launches
Revamped Contact Details page
Text field redesign
Photomoji
Google Account Device pairing
Upcoming features
These are Messages features that Google announced or have been spotted in the wild by beta users.
Gemini in Google Messages
This chatbot will let you talk to Gemini. The experience has been optimized to provide more concise responses that are ideal on phones. Available features include access to Gemini Extensions (Gmail, Drive, Maps, YouTube, etc.) and image generation.
Google said it would start testing this version of Gemini in late February for a small percentage of users before a wider launch. We haven’t had any user reports of this feature going live yet.
Audio recorder redesign with Noise Cancellation and Voice Moods
In late November, Google announced Voice Moods to visually theme the audio waveform with “sprinkle heart-eye emoji, fume with fireballs, or break out the party popper.” There are nine in total so that recipients can “hear your words along with a visual effect that expresses how you’re feeling at that moment.”
However, the bigger change is a redesign of the voice recording UI so that it opens as a dedicated panel with large controls after tapping the button. Previously, your only option was long-pressing to keep recording. This is coupled with Noise Cancellation that increases the bitrate and sampling rate. The revamp is live for only some users, but we haven’t seen Voice Moods yet.
Custom Bubbles
This will let you customize an RCS conversation’s bubble color and background. This is synchronized between you and the recipient. Once available, “Change colors” will appear in a thread’s overflow menu. There are nine options: Default (Material You Dynamic Color theming), Blue, Fuchsia, Green, Monochrome, Orange, Pink, Purple, and Turquoise. Very few people have Custom Bubbles.
Profiles
Profiles let you specify what name and picture other users see in a conversation. If the person you’re talking to has set up a Profile, that is the image you’ll see inside Google Messages going forward, thus replacing any contact photos you’ve manually added. However, Google will not override the contact name you have set.
This started rolling out in mid-November for some users in Messages settings> Advanced> Profile discovery.
More Screen Effects
Screen Effects briefly take over the Google Messages app. In November, Google teased over 15, but we’ve only encountered two so far:
“I love you” and “Happy Valentine’s Day”
“Sounds good”
Magic Compose
On the Pixel 8 Pro and Galaxy S24, these suggestions and message rewrites work on-device using Gemini Nano. For all other devices, conversations are sent to the cloud.
Google Messages RCS background
Late last year, Google tested (and has since pulled) background for RCS conversations. The design consists of overlapping circles/bubbles that were quite prominent with light themes.
New conversation picker
Instead of a pop-up called “Select conversation,” you get a fullscreen “Select recipients” UI with “Recent conversations” listed first. You then get a full list of contacts. This appeared for some users and then was pulled.
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