Google's Messages App Could Soon Allow Users to Edit Sent Texts; Reportedly in Testing

Google is reportedly making a new table in the Messages database to keep details of edited messages.

Written by Nithya P Nair, Edited by Siddharth Suvarna | Updated: 12 December 2023 17:50 IST

Google's Messages App Could Soon Allow Users to Edit Sent Texts; Reportedly in Testing

Photo Credit: Google

Google brought several updates to the Messages app over the past few months

Highlights

Google added Ultra HDR support in RCS chats last month
The development of the message editing feature is not yet functional
The feature might undergo several updates before the final release

Google has been offering several significant updates to its Messages app that seem poised to make the platform more competitive in the coming days. Recently, it gained Ultra HDR support in RCS (Rich Communication Services) chats and more enhancements including photomoji, and animated stickers have been added to the app. Now, the search giant is reportedly working on a WhatsApp-like message editing feature for its Google Messages app.

The addition of a new text editing feature in Google Messages was spotted by The SPAndroid. The publication has picked out four flags — bugle.enable_edit_ui, bugle.load_edit_history, bugle.process_outgoing_edits, and bugle.process_incoming_edits— that point to an edit feature in the beta version of Google Messages app that was released in the last week of November.

Further, an APK teardown of the Google Messages app by the publication indicated that Google is making a new table in the messages database to keep details of edited messages. This table allegedly contains the message ID, the latest message ID, and original RCS message ID. It also said to include two other columns for edited and received timestamps. Google Messages is believed to store details of the messages you edit and process in these tables.

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The message editing feature for the Messages app is not yet available to the public or confirmed by Google. It is expected to assist in fixing typos or making changes to the messages after they have been sent. The feature might undergo several updates before the final release.

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Google has brought several updates to the Messages app over the past few months. The California-based tech giant added Ultra HDR support in RCS chats last month. This functionality allows users to share high-quality images in their RCS messages. The Ultra HDR image format is currently only available on the new Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro handsets, but will soon be available on more devices. Google Messages app already shows typing indicators, and offers photo and video sharing options among others.

Google I/O 2023 saw the search giant repeatedly tell us that it cares about AI, alongside the launch of its first foldable phone and Pixel-branded tablet. This year, the company is going to supercharge its apps, services, and Android operating system with AI technology. We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Further reading: Google, Google Messages, Google Messages Update, Google Messages Features

Nithya P Nair

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Nithya P Nair is a journalist with more than five years of experience in digital journalism. She specialises in business and technology beats. A foodie at heart, Nithya loves exploring new places (read cuisines) and sneaking in Malayalam movie dialogues to spice up conversations. More