We’ll soon be able to view voice memo transcripts, reply to conversations with whatever emoji one desires, and more with Google Messages’ upcoming features.

Voice message transcripts

Thanks to the built-in microphone button in Google Messages, you may record a voice note to send to the other person whether you’re conversing over RCS or SMS/MMS.

A recording like that, though, might not always be the best method to convey your message. For example, the recipient may not be in a location where they can listen to the message, or the audio may be compressed often, which can sometimes make your speech difficult to hear.

Google Messages is getting ready to offer the ability to transcribe incoming voice memos in order to be more useful in certain circumstances. Another method we’ve seen includes manually hitting a “Transcribe” button. In one version of the service, fresh messages are automatically transcribed as they’re received. Although the functionality doesn’t currently appear to be rolling out, our team was able to manually activate it.

According to our limited testing, Google Messages appears to get the transcripts largely right, even adding punctuation automatically, maybe based on the speaker’s pauses and voice tone. The transcription is noticeably slower when “Transcribe” is selected on a 13-second clip than Google Assistant voice typing on the Pixel 6.

Full emoji reactions

The ability to respond to messages was first introduced in Google Messages in 2020, starting with a set of seven reply emoji that somewhat resembles those seen in Apple’s iMessage. Since then, Google Message’s replies haven’t altered all that much, with the major improvement being the app’s ability to “translate” iMessage reactions to make texting your iPhone-owning friends less irksome.

Google is now working to make RCS chat interactions much more lively. We discovered a buggy feature in the most recent beta of Google Messages that lets you reply with any emoji. The thumbs-down emoji has been replaced in the new design with an indicator that says “add emoji.”

Any emoji on your Android phone that is accessible will appear when you tap this button and may be used to respond to messages. Our team was able to give each other a variety of emoji replies, which is even better because these unique emoji reactions already function on the receiving end without activating the functionality.

Revamped gallery view

Last but not least, the picture gallery view in Google Messages may also be receiving a change. The software now gives you the ability to take an instant photo along with a horizontally scrolling grid of your most recent screenshots and photographs that you might attach to your message.

You may now scroll vertically across your photographs with the new design our team enabled, even utilizing more of the screen as you scroll for a more comfortable experience. The former “Gallery” button has been changed to a “Folders” option that provides roughly the same functionality. In general, the updated picture gallery in Google Messages, especially the floating action buttons in the corner, meshes well with Material You.

via: 9to5google

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