Google Messages loses ‘Top contacts’ when starting new conversations

Abner Li | Oct 23 2023 - 8:17 am PT

Google Messages has recently stopped showing “Top contacts” on the “New conversation” screen in a disruptive behavior change for some users.

Previously, the “New conversation” page accessed from the “Start chat” FAB in the bottom-right corner would show a grid of “Top contacts” between “Create group” and the full alphabetical list of contacts. Tapping would quickly take you to that thread, while a contact with multiple saved numbers would open a pop-up for you to select.

This section has disappeared in recent weeks for all users. For those that frequently archive conversations or have a large number of threads and use Top contacts to jump into them without having to scroll the main list, this is an annoying change. One workaround for the latter group might be pinning conversations (but only up to five) to the top of the homescreen.

Old vs. current

In the screenshots above, you can also see other UI tweaks like “Create group” now being placed in a pill-shaped button, while labels no longer appear at the right.

A related change that’s still in testing will see Google Messages replace the “Select conversation” picker with a fullscreen “Select recipients” page that allows you to select multiple contacts. This also serves as the updated forwarding UI.