Google Messages rolling out ‘Profile discovery’ to set Account-level name, avatar

Abner Li | Nov 14 2023 - 9:23 am PT

As we’ve been tracking, Google is now beginning to roll out “Profile discovery” in Messages for Android to establish your name and photo across the RCS app and others.

Once live, you’ll be prompted to “choose a name and picture to help anyone with your phone number or email recognize you in Google products,” like Messages. From the strings we spotted, Google might notify you when other people change their images. For comparison, iMessage gives you the option of whether to update an avatar.

Default options include your full name, just your first, initials, and other common variants, while you can choose your current profile avatar or just a letter on a generic background.

This is part of “Profile discovery,” which appears in Messages Settings > Advanced once rolled out to your phone. It is a Google Account-level setting that you can turn on/off. Google notes what phone number is associated with your name and profile image, with the ability to change things.

Besides Messages, Google has yet to make clear what other products will use this Profile name/image. Gmail, Google Chat, and Photos are obvious candidates, while it also makes sense for Google Contacts. Hopefully, you’re still able to set your own pictures for others at will.

Profile discovery in Google Messages is not yet widely rolled out on devices running the beta that we checked today.