We're all still basking in the Android Feature Drop update changes and Google's "new" beta program for them, but the company also has a lot more to share today when it comes to its apps, too, like Google Messages. Today, Google is making a handful of new-new and not-so-new changes to Messages official, including support for iMessage reactions, the ability to send videos through Google Photos links directly inside Messages, YouTube previews, conversation categories, one-time password auto-delete, and message nudges for follow-up and birthday reminders. Some of these changes have been in testing as far back as 2020, but now they're official and rolling out "in the coming weeks."

Many of the announcements harp on the fact that Apple still doesn't support RCS, with Google noting (as we did back in 2020) that this is holding back progress for everyone and negatively impacting the privacy of iPhone-using customers that have to fall back to SMS. Apple seemingly doesn't care.

Reactions from iMessage

Most customers are likely most excited by the official rollout of reactions from iMessage-using counterparts, which will now look and appear as you'd expect them to: Attached to the message they're acknowledging rather than floating as their own "Liked X" somewhere else down the thread. The feature first started rolling out in beta early last year, but even after rolling out more widely in February, not everyone had it yet.

In the coming weeks, it should work for everyone, but only in English for now. Other languages are coming later. These caveats are indicators of how hackey the solution seems to be at a technical level — it even maps different emoji between iPhones and Android devices, according to prior teardowns. That could mean Apple might break it with its own changes to iMessage later if they can't be parsed by Messages, but who knows. At least it works for now.

Higher quality videos through Google Photos

In another "already seen it" announcement, Google is more directly integrating Google Photos into Messages so you can share higher quality videos with just a link. As anyone that's tried to send someone a video over text messaging knows, content forced through MMS looks 2002-era garbage — particularly embarrassing in this, the year of our blog 2022. RCS makes that better, but you still can't be sure it will come out the other end in the best possible quality since not all RCS solutions work the same or meet the same standards. Carriers like to play with this stuff for bad and dumb reasons.

Google Photos Messages links -anim

That's why Google is giving us the option to more simply send videos through a Google Photos link when we try to do that in Messages. It's all smoothly integrated, so you won't have to manually upload a video, get a link yourself, and fire it off. Messages will handle all of that for you.

YouTube previews

Messages YouTube Previews -anim

Many services support link previews, offering you an in-line glimpse of whatever a given link in a message connects to. If you've used things like Google Meet or Slack, then you know that YouTube links can include previews to view them right there. And, uh, so can Messages now. Neat.

Conversation categories, nudges, OTP auto-delete

Lastly, Google's just making Messages a more organized experience. Conversation categories — first spotted all the way back in 2020 — sort things into easy tabbed groups, just like Gmail. That helps keep personal communications separate from business stuff as more and more companies use SMS and RCS for everything from appointment reminders to even booking. (My dentist has this whole system that lets me make appointments with an automated system over SMS, this stuff is really taking off.)

Two-factor keys are getting a declutter too. For the record, SMS-based two-factor authentication is objectively the worst kind, and companies that only offer it instead of app or key-based systems should be actively embarrassed since it's only as secure as your carrier is. But if you're forced to use it by your antiquated bank or some other garbage service, Google is giving you the option to have those messages self-delete after 24 hours.

First spotted in development back in March of 2021, both it and the categories started rolling out more widely in recent days, and Google has already launched the feature in India, but it's now expanding to the US.

All this doesn't make a bad SMS-based 2FA any more secure, but it does reduce clutter a little and make your conversation list look like less of a one-time password graveyard.

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Lastly, Google's going to nudge you to let you know about follow-up messages (sort of like Gmail), as well as important dates. If you're prone to forgetting to tell someone Happy Birthday and don't like the low-effort Twitter or Facebook comment, this change can help you seem like more of an attentive or organized friend than you actually are.

Some of these features might sound familiar, both because we've covered them and because you might even have some of them live on your own phone already. Google's been known to extensively test things like this, but many of these features have had a particularly long development period, and with Google's many failed messaging efforts, it's understandable the company would want to take the time to get these right.

This is only a tiny bit of what Google is announcing today, and there are a lot more changes landing to other Google apps and Android itself. Keep an eye out for other coverage on Google Photos portrait blur, new emoji kitchen changes, and even a new screen time widget.