Introducing Google Messages: Personalize Your Profile with Names and Pictures!
Google Messages has recently been receiving frequent updates, some of which are quite significant. In the previous month, a noteworthy feature was introduced that prevents others from viewing your messages through third-party app screen sharing. Now, the messaging platform powered by Rich Communication Services (RCS) is introducing an enhancement that will provide users with greater customization and control over how their messages are presented. Profiles are finally being introduced to Google Messages.
9to5Google unzipped the latest version of the Google Messages app from the Play Store and found something very interesting in its codes. Strings will show a new Profile tab and profile settings section. There is another line of code for profile sharing, which we assume works like contact sharing. Part of the string reads “Choose your profile name and photo so people can recognize you,” which will likely allow users to add a name and photo to their profile.
Google Messages to get profiles
Earlier this year, a Reddit post on the r/UniversalProfile subreddit (a forum for people who like RCS) showed what this profile page could look like after some people started seeing this setting option on their Android devices. The description of the string code matches what we see in the shared image. Additionally, there are options for visibility when your profile is shared and notifications of profile updates are received from your contacts.
We don’t know at this point if Profiles is an RCS feature or a Google Messages feature. If it’s RCS-based, it would be available to all devices that use RCS, whether they use Google Messages or not. But there is no way to confirm this.
It should also be noted that just because this feature was seen in APKs, it does not mean that the feature is certain to be completed or that it will appear anytime soon. Sometimes developers abandon a feature halfway through and don’t remove lines of code that then end up in a released build. To know if profiles are really coming to the app, we have to wait for official confirmation from Google.
