Back in May, Google added support for iMessage-like emoji reactions for Messages sent over RCS, but the web app lacked support. Now, that’s finally being rectified.
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Last month, Google announced that it would fulfill a long-time feature request in its RCS client. End-to-end encryption in Google Messages is now rolling out for some beta users.
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In mid-2019, Google decided to take over and speed up the launch of RCS. A little over 17 months later, Google announced today that it has completed a global rollout of RCS, while Messages will start testing end-to-end encryption.
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Android 11 isn’t a massive update, but it brought a ton of quality-of-life changes to the platform. One of those changes was a super smooth animation for the keyboard, but it hasn’t been used widely yet. Now, Google Messages is adopting the smooth keyboard animation.
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For a few years now, Samsung’s Galaxy Tabs have been able to send and receive calls and text messages from Galaxy phones. While this feature, called “Call and Message Continuity,” currently requires you to use Samsung Messages, it looks like Google Messages may soon gain support for this same continuity.
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Just yesterday, Google announced that Fi users would lose access to their messages through classic Hangouts, but the company also teased a new web experience. Now, that updated Messages for Web feature is already rolling out to some Google Fi users.
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In the US, people rely on SMS and RCS messaging for everything from connecting with friends to account security. To help make your text message inbox less of a cluttered mess, Google Messages is preparing a new “Message Organization” feature, which we were able to get hands-on with.
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To increase our security online, many websites, apps, and services have adopted one-time passwords and verification codes to add a second layer of protection. Soon, Google Messages may be able to identify one-time passwords and automatically delete them.
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Google Messages has been rolling out RCS support to Android users across the globe and, now, users in Italy are getting in on the fun.
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As RCS continues to roll out more widely around the globe, Google is improving the feature through its Messages app. The latest feature added is a neat trick that lets you reroute an RCS message to SMS in Google Messages.
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Earlier this month, Android 11 Beta testers were able to take advantage of Bubbles in Messages. Google is now making official features, like Smart Reply suggestions for stickers, and recapping other recent Messages functionality.
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We’re quickly approaching the debut of the OnePlus Nord and, ahead of that official launch, OnePlus continues to tease details about the device. Now, in a brief video on Instagram, OnePlus has confirmed some Google apps that will come pre-loaded on Nord, including Google Messages.
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As promised last month, the Google Messages beta now takes advantage of Bubbles in Android 11. Support on the latest app beta is rolling out today via a server-side update.
Last week, a new beta version of Gboard began rolling out via the Google Play Store. Today, some folks who use the Gboard beta are finding “Smart Compose” features in Google Messages.
RCS is the next big step in improving messaging on Android, but there will be some people who just don’t want it. Recently, Google opened up a form that makes it easy to disable RCS completely on Google Messages for your number by deregistering it.
While there are many OS-level features in Android 11 Beta 1, other changes require app developers to manually integrate. Google Messages in the coming weeks will support Android 11’s Bubbles API.
Especially since the announcement of Google’s RCS ambitions, the Google Messages app has been growing with new features at a rapid pace. Now, with its latest beta update, Google Messages is getting a redesigned search bar that’s nearly identical to the one we see in many other Google apps.
Google Messages has one big attractive feature in RCS, but other parts of the app have made it a great offering for all users. For a while, Google has been working on adding smart suggestions for stickers in Google Messages since last year, and now, it looks like that feature will be going live soon, and Gboard is testing a similar function too!
The rollout of RCS has been slow, but as Sundar Pichai mentioned recently, it’s starting to gain momentum. This week, user reports reveal that Google is apparently rolling out RCS support to Google Messages users in India.
Today, the folks at APKMirror got ahold of an internal “dogfood” build of Google Messages version 6.2. Here, “dogfood” is used in the sense of the phrase “eat your own dog food,” meaning actually use the product you’re building. Of course, our APK Insight team immediately dug in to see what all is coming with the next version of Google Messages. While we’re still actively looking through the many changes found within, one in particular stood out — end-to-end encryption for RCS messages.
Update 5/26: We now have a screenshot of one of the end-to-end encryption settings pages in action.
For the last few months, our APK Insight team has been tracking Google’s efforts to add emoji reactions to RCS and specifically their own Messages app. Some are now reporting that they’re able to add iMessage-like reactions to RCS messages.
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Those of us with Android phones can connect the Google Messages app to “Messages for web” as a way to manage SMS and RCS from a browser. Google is getting ready to take things a step further for Google Fi customers by bringing calls and voicemails to the same Messages web app.
In recent years, Google’s messaging services have been split between consumer and enterprise. The latter has seen a slew of changes in recent weeks, including a rebrand and expanded availability. That barrier between the two types of apps is now blurring as Google today placed G Suite head Javier Soltero in charge of consumer messaging, and unified both teams.
Just as Google Messages has surpassed 1 billion installs on the Google Play Store, the team behind it is not resting up, as it drip-feeds new features constantly. The latest Google Messages addition is a neat little “attach recent photos” prompt for when you’re texting your contacts.
