Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google Messages could soon solve a common frustration for group chat users, finally enabling them to set custom group chat icons.
- Currently, Google does not allow users to change the RCS group chat icon, which defaults to a grid made up of users’ initials or individual profile pictures.
- We spotted the upcoming feature in a recent beta version of the Google Messages app.
Google Messages users have long wanted the ability to set custom images for RCS group chats. There are numerous threads on Reddit and Google’s Community forum with users expressing their frustration over the lack of the feature. While the RCS Universal Profile has supported custom group images for many years, Google hasn’t made the feature available to Messages users till now. Thankfully, that’s about to change.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
In a recent Google Messages beta version (20241127_00_RC00.phone.openbeta_dynamic), we found code evidence suggesting that users will soon be able to add images as group icons, replacing the boring grid of initials and user profile pictures that the app currently auto-assigns. The change will bring Google Messages at par with other chat apps like WhatsApp, which already offer customizable profile pictures for group chats.
The change will make it easier to identify group chats in Messages. Since RCS works over the internet, the selected profile picture should reflect for all members of the group chat, keeping the experience universal. It’s unclear if anyone from the group will be able to change the image or if this would require admin access. It’s also unclear if the RCS chat group icon will reflect for iOS users or not.