Google Messages is set to get even more useful thanks to a new update

Summary

Google Messages is the default texting app on most Android phones, and it offers support for the modern RCS messaging standard.
Google Messages is set to receive two new features in the near future: a new sensitive content warning system, and real-time location sharing.
Google’s native Android messaging platform is fairly solid as is, but there’s always room for improvement.

Google’s native text messaging platform for the Android

Google Messages
, is set to receive two new features in the near future: a sensitive content warning system, and a real-time location tracker tool. The former is designed to automatically blur out lewd, suggestive, or adult-themed content from within texting threads, while the latter is supposed to make it easier to track the location of friends and family via a new live map interface.

When it rolls out, sensitive content warnings will be opt-in for adults, and it will be on by default for users under the age of 18. Flagged media will be blurred automatically, with the option to then go ahead and view the content in question after hitting a confirmation button. According to

Google
, this feature works entirely on-device, with no data sent to the cloud.

Two phones side by side. One with Google Messages and the other with a cat sticker.

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Real-time location sharing, which looks to be an upgraded version of the existing (and rather limited) one-and-done share location feature, is likely to work similarly to Apple’s location sharing feature within iMessages when it lands on devices. When enabled, it lets you keep tabs on another person’s location, while providing real-time GPS updates as they traverse the world.

Google first confirmed its plans to integrate a sensitive content warning system into its Messages platform back in October of last year, but the feature is reportedly only now beginning to roll out to users (via 9to5Google). As for the real-time location-sharing tool, there’s no official confirmation on when the feature might go live. For the time being, all we have to go off of is an APK teardown, courtesy of Android Authority.

Google Messages

Google’s default messaging application, which is installed on many Android phones out of the box. The company’s custom RCS implementation brings with it end-to-end encryption.

Google Messages is solid, but there’s still room for improvement

I’d love to see Google embrace additional quality-of-life features in its native Android messenger

Google Messages has certainly come a long way in a relatively short period of time. After several botched attempts at creating a unified messaging platform over the years, Google eventually hinged its bets on a rejuvenated Messages app, complete with native support for the

Rich Communication Services
(RCS) texting standard to bolster its utility.

Since then, the company has steadily introduced new features into the app, while extending its reach to desktop platforms via its Google Messages for web service. More recently, Google has implemented a flurry of new tools into the Messages mix, including the ability to

send RCS messages to yourself
, deeper

integration with its Gemini chatbot
, the addition of a

Magic Compose
feature, a fun-yet-quirky

Photomoji
maker, and more.

These additions to the Google Messages experience are very much welcome, and they certainly bring the texting platform in closer proximity to the likes of iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, and other competing solutions. That being said, there are still a couple of additional features I’d love to see Google implement in the future.

…there are still a couple of additional features I’d love to see Google implement in the future.

In particular, I’d love to see the re-introduction of the category tab layout, which automatically organizes text threads into buckets such as transactions, offers, one-time passwords (OTPs), and more. Secondarily on my personal wishlist is the implementation of a ‘send delay’ option, which has been available on

third-party SMS apps
for years at this point. When toggled on, this setting allows you to cancel the sending of a message within a 3-to-5-second window, which has saved me countless bouts of embarrassment over the years.