We’ve seen a continual stream of updates and feature tweaks to Google Messages for close to 12 months now. The RCS feature being one of the biggest and makes it something of — not directly, yet — a competitor to Apple’s iMessage platform. Now with the confirmation that further rumoured features are now official, it’s getting better and better.
When Android 11 Beta landed, users saw new and tweaked features including:
- Reactions to messages
- Video calling integrration
- Attaching recent (5 mins old or less) photos
All pointing to a far more unified — finally — communications solution from Google.
A quick test this morning showed that the reactions feature is live in Australia. To trigger this, you simply need to long-press the message you want to send a reaction or acknowledgement to and make your choice.
We’ve seen smart replies in text for some time, with RCS that’s taken a step further adding stickers to the chat. Much like other messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram, this can add a giggle to your chats while reducing time to get your message across.
Other features mentioned in the latest blog include photo editing, voice messaging which is as simple as press and hold the microphone icon and that the integration of Google Duo is now complete. A really solid improvement to a good platform, now if only all phones and carriers supported RCS in Australia….
