Google has made a number of updates to the Messages app, including the ability to customize text bubbles and background colors, allowing users to have blue bubbles in the Android Messages app.
You can also set a different color for each conversation to differentiate family conversations from conversations between friends.
You can use Photomoji to turn photos into reactions using Google AI built into your device. This means you'll likely need a newer Pixel device to use this feature.
The app saves these interactions for later, and friends who join the chat can also use any emoji you send them.
The new Voice Emotions feature lets you apply one of nine different emotions via voice messages and display visual effects like eyes, hearts, and fireball emojis. Google says it is improving the quality of voice messages by increasing the bitrate and sample rate.
There are now more than 15 on-screen effects that you can trigger by tapping on things like “It's snowing” or “I love you.” The company says this will fill your screen with a symphony of color and motion. Using specific reactions and emojis makes messages more lively.
Users can now create an account that links their name and photo to their phone number to control their appearance on Google services.
The company says that this feature is useful when receiving messages from phone numbers that are not in group chats. It also helps you understand the people in the group chat.
Some of these features are now available in beta of the latest version of Google Messages. The company notes that the availability of certain features depends on the market and device.
Google is rolling out these updates because more than 1 billion people now use Google Messages with RCS enabled each month.
RCS is a more feature-rich format than SMS and MMS, supporting features such as read receipts, typing indicators, group chats, and high-resolution media. Google also provides end-to-end encryption for individual and group conversations through RCS.