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.
The Google Messages app just passed 1 billion downloads on the Play Store. It’s not uncommon for a Google-made app to hit this total, but for Google Messages it’s significant. Let’s talk about why.
A Google Messages bug appears to be deleting random SMS messages for some, with the bug causing more issues beyond just the loss of texts.
Google Messages has been growing considerably over the past year in an effort to offer a better messaging experience for Android users, and Google is still adding more features. Now, in the latest beta update, Google Messages has introduced an image markup tool.
RCS chat is Google’s latest attempt to fix the Android messaging mess, and slowly the company has been rolling out the functionality to Android users around the world. Now, Google Messages is delivering RCS to users in Spain.
Google has recently begun making progress toward bringing reactions to RCS, or at least their version of RCS in the Google Messages app. In the latest salvo in the petty war of blue bubble vs green bubble, Google Messages is getting ready to send some very iMessage-like reaction text messages, such as “Liked a photo.”
RCS is widely rolled out in the US, Mexico, UK, and France after Google took charge of the rollout last year. There are now reports this afternoon that RCS is down, with many Android users stuck on the “Connecting…” status in Google Messages.
One of the features many will likely miss when switching from iMessage to RCS is message reactions. The latest Google Messages beta, version 5.7 “Unicorn,” appears to be adding emote reactions for messages, as well as the ability to draw on images.
Last October, a trick to enable RCS in the Messages app on any Android phone emerged. Google today announced that it will be killing “unsupported workarounds” by the end of February.
If you’re practicing good account security, you may have your phone number attached to various accounts as part of two-factor authentication. Google Messages is rolling out a new feature to autofill any one-time security codes that your apps may need.
The majority of Google apps today have been revamped with the company’s latest design language. There are some minor exceptions, with recent Google Phone and Messages betas introducing Material Theme icons throughout.
A hidden part of Android 10 is a new API for “Bubbles” which allows apps to put messaging and other functions in a floating bubble. The feature arrives in full in Android 11 and, now, Google Messages is starting to test support for Bubbles.
