Google might soon bring several key updates to the Messages app

Have you ever been in a situation where someone, a friend let’s say, sends you a voice message that you really want to hear, but you can’t because you are at work for example? Oh who are we kidding, we’ve all found ourselves in a similar situation at least once.

Well, Google is working on a solution to this very 21st-century problem, which is the ability to read transcripts of sent voice memos in the Google Messages app. Or at least that is what 9to5Google’s APK teardown has brought to light.

Apparently, there are two versions of this feature — a manual one that involves the user tapping a “Transcribe” button, as well as an automatic approach that simply transcripts all voice memos by default.



The feature, however, is still in development and does not work perfectly as of yet. It is not even certain that we will see voice message transcription in an official update. That being said, it sounds like a great option to have, so we are hoping we get to test its complete version at some point.

Apart from the voice memo transcription, the APK teardown has also revealed that Google might enable its users to use the complete “alphabet” of emojis in the Messages app! For now, the app only allows the use of 7 different emojis when reacting to messages.



Another Messages-related possible update is a redesigned gallery view, which is the panel of photos that opens up when you want to send a photo from your device. Instead of a horizontal grid, it would be a vertical one, which extends when you start scrolling up. You will still get the camera viewfinder in that menu, while the button dubbed “Gallery” might be renamed to “Folders” without changing its functionality.