All that said, it's not guaranteed that users will welcome all the changes that Google brings to its app. There are certain changes that most users don't like, and the same apparently happened with the new update the Big G is reportedly working on for the chat-pinning functionality of its messaging app.
The new UI looks great, but not the change it brings
I recently covered a story mentioning that Google is testing a new limit for the chat pinning feature and working on changing the UI of all the pinned chats. The post also contained a poll asking you to share your thoughts on this change the tech giant is currently working on.
What do you think of Google Messages new pinned chat UI?
The poll had received 526 votes at the time of writing, with almost 45% of users saying that the new UI of the pinned chats looks good but that Google should not change the limit. I, personally, believe the same.
That's a big cut
Currently, Google Messages allows you to pin up to 20 chats, but after introducing the new iMessage-inspired UI, the company is looking to bring that number down to just six chats. I often have 9–10 conversations pinned, but if the new change is implemented in the stable build, I would have to filter out the six most important chats among all the already important ones.
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Even iMessage, from which the new pinned chat UI has apparently taken inspiration, allows pinning up to nine chats. I think if Google really wanted to change the chat limit, it should have cut it to 10 from 20 instead of making such a big reduction.
That said, I believe the company might be thinking that more than six large circles featuring the pinned chats might not look great. But there's a workaround for it: a slider could be added at the bottom, with each slide containing up to six pinned chats.
User not liking the new Google Messages change. | Image by Reddit
It's not only our readers; users on platforms like Reddit also appear to dislike the new limit. A Google Messages user commented under a related post that they have around 10 conversations pinned, and the new limit of 6 is going to break the way they use the app. Another user commented that they really don't understand why Google is even thinking of decreasing the number of pinned chats.
It's still in the beta phase
Reducing the pinned chat limit really doesn't make sense to me, because until now Google has been increasing the limit. For reference, the app initially allowed pinning only three chats. It has subsequently expanded the limit to five, ten, and 20 pinned conversations.
The good news is that the change has been observed in the beta build of the Google texting app. That means there might be a possibility that the company will decide not to actually reduce the pinned chat number when this change goes live in the stable build.
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Aman Kumar is a news writer at PhoneArena covering Google Pixel phones, Android features, AI-powered smartphone tools, and mobile tech news. Before joining PhoneArena, he spent over five years writing about consumer technology for publications like MakeUseOf, How-To Geek, and Guiding Tech. His current daily drivers are the Pixel 10 and Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus, while his red iPhone SE (2nd gen) remains a personal favorite. Aman also appreciates bold smartphone experiments and still considers the Nokia N-Gage one of the industry’s most iconic designs.
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