Highlights
- Google is updating its Messages app to make it more user friendly
- Messages app will share Google Photo links directly when sending content
- Gboard is getting over 2,000 new emoji mashups as stickers.
Google’s Messages will show emojis to your messages once they get reactions from an iPhone user. |
Google Messages will let you share Google Photos links to your iPhone contacts for media content |
Google's Messages app uses the Rich Communication Services (RCS) standard that is not available on its Apple counterpart. Photos and videos shared over a platform that is not based on the RCS protocol appear inferior. Google has, thus, introduced Google Photos sharing links to Messages to resolve the issue from its end.
The initial experience is limited to videos, though the Android-maker promises to make it available for photos in the coming future.
Google still encourages “Apple to join the rest of the mobile industry and adopt RCS” so that messages can become “better and more secure, no matter what device you choose.”
In addition to the changes focussed on people communicating with iPhone users, the new Messages update brings Personal and Business tabs to automatically sort your messages depending on their content. Users can also set one-time password messages to be automatically deleted after 24 hours to help reduce the clutter even more. This particular change was originally provided to users in India, though it is now rolling out in the US.
The updated Messages app will also give you gentle nudges to remind you to reply to messages that you might have missed or need to follow-up on. It is coming first to users using English language around the globe.
Google Messages will now help you respond to the messages that you might have missed |
Messages will now also remind you to send birthday wishes to your loved ones if their contact details on the your device includes their birth date. Emoji Kitchen on Messages is also getting bigger with over 2,000 new emoji mashups to come as stickers.
Separately, Gboard is adding a new grammar correction feature to detect grammatical errors and offer suggestions. Pixel users with English (US) language will also start seeing their words converting into colourful stickers when typing.
Google has also made its Live Transcribe app available offline to let users view speech-to-text captions in real time even when they aren't connected to Wi-Fi or cellular data.
Additionally, Google Photos is adding a Portrait Blur feature for photos with subjects such as people as well as pets, food, and plants. A screen-time widget has also been released to improve your digital habits.
Nearby Share — Google's feature to let you share photos, videos, links, audio files, and even folders between nearby devices — is also getting an update to let you share content with multiple people simultaneously. It is rolling out for all devices that are running on at least Android 6.