If you’ve been looking for an alternative to Meta’s popular messaging app, WhatsApp, Google’s Messages is making a compelling case for why you should make the switch. The company has announced a swathe of exciting features that WhatsApp does not have.
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What’s up?
For starters, users will, in the coming weeks, be able to automatically sort messages into Personal and Business tabs with an organized inbox.
The app features tabs at the top that makes it easy to switch between chats from friends and those from colleagues, clients or the boss. It will also now be possible to reduce inbox clutter if you set up one-time password messages, which can be deleted after 24 hours.
Maybe not many people will appreciate this, but the update nudges you to reply to messages or to follow up on messages that are yet to be responded to, just like the Gmail feature. You will also get a notification to wish your friends or people in your contact list, happy birthday. Announcing the changes in a recent blog post, Google said:
From huge updates to messaging (including more connection with your iPhone friends) to powerful photo editing tools and even smarter ways to pay for parking, these upgrades bring more helpful technology to messaging, entertainment and more.
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Reaching beyond
One other feature that android users will find exciting is just how much better it is to send messages to friends on the other side (iPhone users). Reactions from iPhone users will now appear as emoji on text messages — just like when you’re messaging with someone using an Android device.
Also, Google says soon, your friends with iPhones can enjoy your videos in the same resolution you do when you send them as Google Photos links right inside the conversation. Explaining why this didn’t work before, Google said in its blog post:
Today, the RCS standard lets people with Android devices share beautiful, high-quality photos and videos with one another. But unfortunately, without RCS, they look blurry when you share them with your iPhone friends. Now everyone can watch your videos in the same resolution that you do since we’re bringing Google Photos into Messages.
