That way, you can always remember that texts with your significant other are in, say, purple, whereas messages with your most important client are in red. (Best not to get those two threads confused.)
Just open up any thread you like within Messages — then:
- Tap the three-dot menu icon in the screen’s upper-right corner.
- Select “Chat theme” from the menu that appears.
- Pick the color scheme and/or custom background image you prefer, then tap the Confirm button at the bottom.
Every Android Messages conversation can have its own distinctive theme, if you take the time to set it up.
JR Raphael, Foundry
Repeat for any other compatible conversations, and you’ll always know exactly what you’re looking at even with a fast glance — and without having to give it an ounce of active thought.
Android Messages feature #9: A consistent identity
In addition to deciding how other people appear within your Messages interface, you can also take a couple quick steps to help control how you show up for other people you’re messaging. This one mainly affects Android-based Google Messages users, but hey — we do what we can, right?
To take control of your own Messages identity, tap your profile picture in the app’s upper-right corner and select “Your profile.”
And lookie what we found: There, in a menu most mere mortals would never even open, is the option to set your own default profile picture and name so that anyone else using the app will see you as that identity.
Your Google Messages profile — ready and waiting for you to take control.
JR Raphael, Foundry
Those people can still change your name and picture to anything else on their own devices, of course. But this way, when you text someone new, you can rest easy knowing they won’t see you as “Weird Work Guy Who Keeps Texting Me” along with an image of a sloth. (Initially, anyway.)
You know a fantastic way to waste time? I’ll tell ya: moving from one app to another just to glance at something someone sent you.
But get this: Google’s Android Messages app can let you preview and get the gist of both text articles and even YouTube videos without ever leaving your current conversation — from right within the app and that very same message thread.
The key is to make sure you’ve got the associated options enabled:
- Tap your profile picture in the upper-right corner of the main Messages screen.
- Select “Messages settings,” then tap “Automatic previews.”
- Make sure the toggle next to “Show all previews” is on and active.
Now, the next time someone sends you a link, you’ll see the associated item’s thumbnail and description right then and there, within the Messages conversation:
Videos expanded in-line within Messages — easy peasy.
JR Raphael, Foundry
With web pages, Messages will show you just enough of a preview to let you make an educated decision about whether you want to tap the link or not.
Web links gain useful extra context once you enable the right option within the Android Messages settings.
JR Raphael, Foundry
Almost painfully sensible, no?
Android Messages feature #11: Instant editing
While we’re on the subject of media, the next time you find yourself needing to mark up or otherwise modify an image someone sends you (or even something you yourself sent within a Google Messages conversation), try this:
Press and hold your finger onto the image, within the Messages thread, and select the option to “Remix.” (It’ll have a banana next to it, for reasons that aren’t even worth getting into at this point.)
That’ll load the Gemini Messages image editing interface, where you can use plain text prompting to modify an image in any way you want. The suggestions are mostly silly stuff — recreating a photo in a 90s style, for instance, or giving an image of someone an 80s makeover — but you can also use it for plenty of actual productivity-oriented purposes, such as highlighting or underlining words in a screenshot, editing or replacing elements in a mockup, and practically anything else imaginable.
Gemini image editing within Google Messages is incredibly useful — when it actually works.
JR Raphael, Foundry
Whatever you need to do, just ask — and at least 50% of the time, Gemini will actually accomplish it in the way you’re envisioning.
Android Messages feature #12: Gemini be gone
Speaking of Gemini’s inconsistencies, if you rarely to never interact with Google’s Gemini chatbot from inside the Messages app — perhaps because, y’know, it’s also available in approximately 7 gazillion other in-your-face places — you might appreciate the distraction-free satisfaction of an interface without a prominent Gemini button begging for you to caress it every googforsaken time you open up your messages.
(The Gemini icon is that starburst-shaped symbol that sits perpetually above the “Start chat” button, in Messages’ lower-right corner, if you haven’t ever tapped it to find out.)
And good news: You can actually send that icon a-packin’, if you’re so inspired: Just tap your profile picture in Messages’ upper-right corner, select “Messages settings,” then tap “Gemini in Messages” and flip the switch on the screen that comes up next into the off and inactive position. Doing so will only eliminate that icon in the main Messages inbox area. You’ll still be able to use the image editor we just went over, even with that option off.
All that’s left is to pat yourself on the back and celebrate the fact that you’ll only have to see Gemini in 6.9 gazillion other places from this point forward.
Android Messages feature #13: Free in-flight Wi-Fi
Gemini may be little more than a distraction within Messages most of the time, but one moment when that capability can actually come in handy is while you’re flying the allegedly friendly skies.
A while back, a crafty reader alerted me to the fact that you could use Gemini’s Messages integration to effectively give yourself free in-flight Wi-Fi access even when you haven’t paid for the privilege and it isn’t widely available. It’s a heck of a clever hack and a moment when you genuinely may want to activate Gemini within the Messages app, at least for a little while.
I’ve got a complete breakdown of how it works and how you can put it to use on your next flight.
Android Messages feature #14: Nudge no more
Do you like being nudged and pestered? I sure don’t — but by default, Google Messages does exactly that.
A long-standing Messages feature called, appropriately, Nudges, will periodically move conversations to the top of your messages list and emphasize ’em to encourage you to reply. If you find that to be helpful, hey, more power to ya. Keep it on! But if you find it to be little more than a nuisance, as I do, take 10 seconds to disable it:
Just head back into the Messages app’s settings (by tapping your profile picture in the upper-right corner and selecting “Messages settings”), then select “Suggestions & Actions” followed by “Nudges.” Flip off the switch next to “Suggest message reminders,” decide if you’d also like to switch off the option for “Birthday reminders” in that same area, and breathe a gigantic sigh of relief.
Android Messages feature #15: The sound of silence
When it comes to texting irritations, few things are more hackle-raising than the ongoing blooping cacophony of an oblivious smartphone owner tapping out texts and sending messages to other mammals. Do you really need a sound every single time you send a new message? Does that accomplish anything other than annoying everyone around you — and, quite possibly, also annoying yourself?
If you’re ready to join me in some sanity-saving silencing, go back to that Messages settings screen and look for the line that says “Hear outgoing and incoming message sounds,” then flip the toggle next to it into the off position.
You’ll still hear whatever normal notification sound you’ve set for incoming messages when you aren’t actively staring at the thread in question — but when the Messages app is open and in front of you, you won’t hear that obnoxious back-and-forth blooping for every bleepin’ new missive you’re in the midst of exchanging.
Android Messages feature #16: The spam can
Last but not least for this list, make sure you’ve got one of Messages’ no-brainer boosters active and working to keep spammy text interruptions out of your hair:
Gallop your way once more into Google Messages settings, tap “Protection & Safety,” and make sure the switch next to “Spam protection” is in the on and active position.
That’ll automatically send any suspicious-seeming messages into a cordoned-off area of the app, out of your regular view, and help keep both clutter and concerning scam attempts out of sight. If you ever want to see what’s been flagged, you can always access that stuff via the “Spam & blocked” option in the main Messages menu.
But by and large, no such noise will ever interrupt you, endanger you, or so much as waste your precious time again — and that, my friend, is worth almost as much as never hearing those blasted back-and-forth bleeps and bloops ever again.
👉 Ready for more Android messaging magic? Check out my collection of 12 tricks for more efficient Android texting next — and join my free Android Intelligence newsletter to get helpful tips like these in your inbox every Friday.