Google Adds Profiles, Animations, and Color Choices to Messages

Google is rolling out a set of major new features for its RCS-based Messages app for Android. A new Profiles feature lets you attach your name and photo to your phone number, so that info can optionally, automatically appear in group chats, even on friends' Android phones that don't yet have you saved as a contact. The feature is somewhat similar to the Contact Poster feature that Apple recently introduced in iOS. "Photomoji" lets you create your own totally custom reaction emoji by quickly cutting out a person or animal from one of your own photos. Custom Bubbles lets you customize the bubble and background colors for each chat. Google has also improved the quality of voice messages with better bitrate and sampling rate. Finally, a variety of other features add new animations to emoji, reactions, voice messages, and full-screen effects when certain phrases are used in text. The new features are available in the public beta version of Messages starting today.