There are now over 1 billion monthly active users with RCS enabled in Messages, and Google is celebrating by adding a ton of whimsy to the app across emoji (with Photomoji), voice recording, and customization.
Google Messages now lets you customize the bubble color and background (including the app bar) on a per-conversation basis. The latter adopts a lighter shade than your bubble, while the other person remains white (or gray). Google also pitches Custom Bubbles, which are synchronized between you and the recipient, as helping “avoid accidentally texting your family group chat a weekend update meant for your friend.”
The trio of new emoji features starts with Google making official animated visual effects when you receive/send a single character. For example, the heart emoji becomes a “dazzling pink heart to properly express your excitement.”
Meanwhile, Reaction Effects inject “more life into your conversations” when you use one of these characters: 👍❤️ 😂😮😡👎💩🎉😠😢.
Your friend texts you to let you know the two of you have reservations to that trendy new restaurant that everyone has been buzzing about. If you react to the message with a simple 👍emoji, magic instantly unfolds as an animated trio of hands dances around the message bubble.
Then there’s Photomoji, wherein you can make photos a reaction in Google Messages. On-device Google AI is leveraged, and you’ll see a “Create” button next to the reactions pop-up. Select a photo from the Messages media picker, and the app will identify the main subject. Sent ones appear in the bottom-right corner of conversations next to other emoji reactions. Photomoji will be saved in a special tab for reuse while your friends will also have the ability to access the creations.
Top comment by jhoan
This is the type of stuff I wish Google would do more often. Occasional mass drops of features for users to enjoy instead of sprinkled features here and there or ones limited to A/B testing.
Hope this becomes the norm from now on.
Google is also making official the voice message redesign with Noise Cancellation, while it improved the “overall audio quality of voice messages by increasing the bitrate and sampling rate.” Meanwhile, after recording in the new panel, you’ll be presented with nine different emotions — including “sprinkle heart-eye emoji, fume with fireballs, or break out the party popper” — that visually theme the waveform. This will let the recipient “hear your words along with a visual effect that expresses how you’re feeling at that moment.”
The Messages app is adding 15+ Screen Effects that will “transform your words into dazzling visual displays.” Taking over your screen, this “symphony of colors and motion” occurs when you type specific messages like “I love you” or “It’s snowing.”
Finally, Google is officially launching Profiles that have already appeared for some. This lets you set a profile name and picture that connects to your phone number. This will “shape how you appear across Google services.”
This addresses the problem of receiving messages from phone numbers not saved in your contacts, which can be particularly useful in group chats so that you know who all the other participants in the group are.
This torrent of Google Messages features is rolling out starting today in the beta channel.
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