Recap: Google Messages and RCS in 2024

The biggest moment for Google Messages in 2024 was when the iPhone gained RCS support with iOS 18 in September. In terms of new features, there were some highlights but the biggest one — a redesign of the text field — was stuck in limbo. There are quite a few big additions in the pipeline. 

Verizon switched to Google’s Jibe for RCS on Android, and its Message+ app is no longer available. Similarly, Samsung is moving users to the Google client. Under-the-hood, Google is working on RCS encryption between Android and iPhone. 

In January, Google Messages widely rolled out a redesign of the text field. Left-aligned, this pill-shaped container started with the Emoji button followed by Magic Compose, Gallery, and the ‘Plus’ menu. Voice memo appears separately on the right, and becomes the send button after text is entered. Notably, this UI expanded into two lines, with text appearing above and all the buttons below.

I was personally fine with this design since it would let the app add more features as needed, but enough people hated it that Google started working on a consolidated variant.

The first single-line text field started seeing a wide rollout in May. The untouched state didn’t change, but Gallery and Magic Compose disappeared when you started typing. Emoji and the Plus remain on the sides for a narrower text field.

Towards the middle of 2024, Google pulled that design and most went back to the right-aligned field (which does make more thematic sense). However, the three side-by-side buttons for Plus, Gallery, and Magic Compose shrunk the text field too much, while you still had Emoji and Voice at the right. 

In December, Google started testing another left-aligned field where the Plus menu appears first for consistency. This is followed by Magic Compose, Emoji, and Gallery. When you type, Emoji moves to the right-most position. This design is still just in the beta channel, but hopefully Google proceeds with this look.

On a related note, in November, Google tested moving Magic Compose out of the text field and into the row of reply suggestions. This is a great idea that the app should launch to free up the text field.

Dual SIM RCS support started appearing and is not yet widely rolling out.

The Gallery looks set to get a big redesign that merges the live viewfinder with your camera roll. When taking a new photo or video, you’ll always see 3-6 recent shots with a swipe up revealing everything. After capturing, you can “Write a caption” before sending on the new preview screen.

With this new interface, you have two media quality options when sending:

• Optimize for chat: Send quality media faster, uses less data — “HD”
• Original quality: Sends at full resolution — “HD+”

Another big change being tested is a redesign of Read receipts. This is not yet widely rolled out and follows the last one in early 2023.

In terms of features that actually launched in 2024, the biggest would be RCS message editing giving you 15 minutes to make a change after sending.

Custom Bubbles let you theme conversations (including the background), while Photomoji is a sticker and reaction creator. Other expressive features this year included fullscreen Screen Effects when type certain phrases and Reaction Effects for message, with the option to disable all of them, including Animated Emoji, in Settings. Meanwhile, Google Messages switched to a custom camera with features like face filters and 3-second Selfie GIFs.  

The Magic Rewrite aspect of Magic Compose that tweaks something you’ve already written is now accessible from the ‘Plus’ menu. On supported devices, Magic Compose leverages on-device Gemini Nano.

The voice recorder now opens as a dedicated panel with large controls that mean you don’t have to hold down to capture audio (though the option remains). There’s also noise cancellation. Meanwhile, Voice Moods visually theme the audio waveform with emoji so that you can “hear your words along with a visual effect that expresses how you’re feeling at that moment.”

Profile sharing (previously called “Profile discovery”) lets you set who can see your name and picture with three options: People you message, Only your contacts, or No one. Other people can change your name on their device, but not the avatar picture. This appears on app launch as a screen you cannot avoid, while you can access it again from “Your profile.”

Gemini came to Messages this year with Google settling on a small FAB above the “Start chat” button. You can turn it off in Settings > Gemini in Messages. Appearing like a regular conversation, you can upload images and access Gemini Extensions. 

Google Messages got a new Contact Details page, while you can tap on profile images from the homepage to get a larger version. 

Instead of a pop-up called “Select conversation,” you get a fullscreen “Select recipients” UI with “Recent conversations” listed first. You then get the full list of contacts.

On the Pixel 9 series, Google “fully maintains the conversation structure, media, audio, reactions, favorites, and all the other conversation metadata” of RCS instead of converting to SMS/MMS.” This “carbon copy” is the case for transfers done over Wi-Fi or USB-C cable.