Google Messages has added seven new features to celebrate reaching one billion RCS users:
- Photomoji: Use Google AI to turn a photo into a reaction
- Voice Moods: For voice messages
- Screen effects: AI-powered reactions
- Animated emoji
- Reaction Effects
- Custom Bubble colors
- Shared themes
Other new features include:
- Profile picture and name selection for group chats
The new features are currently only available to beta users. RCS stands for Rich Communication Services, an international protocol that improves SMS/MMS messaging on Android phones.
First, the number: according to Google, over 1 billion monthly active users are using RCS in Google Messages. That’s huge, considering support was scarce just a handful of years ago, though not entirely surprising since it’s been the default messaging service on Android phones for a few years now.
As for the new messaging features, a couple of them might sound familiar to iOS users. There’s a new feature that ties into your Google account to create a Contact Poster-like profile with your name and photo. Google is adding something called Photomoji, which lets you cut people out of your photos and use the photos to react to messages as you would with an emoji.