With Samsung Messages on the way out in the US, we’ve talked about the best alternative for most of you, which is Google Messages. Google Messages is the app that Samsung recommends and that is the most supported with the best messaging experience on Android because it has RCS.
However, Google Messages does not have some features from Samsung Messages, namely the level of customization. While Google Messages does allow you to change bubble colors, that’s it as far as customizing the experience goes. You can’t change backgrounds or add custom photos or do anything else.
We could see big changes on this front in a future update. Spotted within a new beta build of Google Messages, there is evidence of Google working on the ability to create a custom theme for Google Messages.
Things like uploading photos, previewing a theme, custom backgrounds, and bubble colors are all mentioned as features Google is working on.
Here are the strings that were found in this latest beta that suggest big customization changes:
<string name="custom_theme_add_photos">Upload photo</string>
<string name="custom_theme_your_photos">Your photos</string> <string name="custom_theme_preview">Theme Preview</string>
<string name="custom_theme_title">Theme UI</string>
<string name="custom_theme_custom">Custom</string>
<string name="custom_theme_backgrounds">Backgrounds</string>
<string name="custom_theme_bubble_color">Bubble Color</string>
<string name="custom_theme_apply">Apply</string>
We have no idea when this big update could rollout with all of this customization. If these strings are showing behind-the-scenes, there’s always a chance that we see these changes sooner than later. We should see an Android Feature Drop within the next month or so that could bring it.
Google Play Link: Google Messages
