Google Messages Gets iMessage Reactions, Tabbed Categories and More Updates
by George Kamau · TechweezGoogle is updating its Messages app with new features. Google Messages app is now feature full with a couple of new changes.
iMessage Reactions
This is the most-waited update in this feature drop especially if you have friends in the Apple ecosystem using iMessage.
iMessage has really handy features that outrank the Google Messages app. This difference becomes clear when testing between both especially on group chats.
Features like iMessage reactions get broken on Google Messages app as they appear as texts.
Well, this is about change with this new update.
Google Messages will be showing iPhone reactions as emoji on its app.
This feature is now live for users on the Google Messages beta program and can be enabled by heading to Settings, scroll down to Advanced, tap and scrolling down to Show iPhone reactions as emoji and swiping on that toggle to activate this feature.
Now when you react on an iMessage text, it will show up as emoji on Google Messages app as seen below.
Send Higher Quality Videos/Photos Through Google Photos
Google Photos is integrating with Messages to let users share higher quality videos/photos via a link, especially to non-RCS users(iPhone users). This is all done automatically by Google Messages.
Tabbed Conversation Categories
Google Messages will automatically categorize your conversational display them on tabs inside the app.
This neat organizational feature will arrange conversations into personal and business. You can also access the categorized messages offline too.
One-time Password(OTP) Code Auto-Delete
Google Messages will now auto-delete OTP codes sent to you when you’ve set SMS 2-factor Authentication from apps when you log in to your account. Those messages will autodelete after 24 hours – it will take the load of work of manually deleting them.
The app will prompt you when you receive an OTP text.
Nudges
Google Messages will now nudge you to reply to messages if it has been sitting in your inbox for a while as well as important dates such as birthdays.
YouTube Link Previews
Google Messages will now show YouTube previews in the app for both Android and iOS users.
Privacy Changes You Need to Make Right Now
Here’s how to protect your privacy and stay secure on: