Summary
- Google is working on adding Google Messages group chats as direct share targets on Android.
- The feature will streamline one-tap content sharing.
- Once they show up, you can pin group chats to share menu for quick access.
Android’s share sheet is one of its best features, making it easy to share data between apps. Google has enhanced this further with direct share targets, allowing contacts from messaging and social apps to appear directly in the share menu. This enables one-tap sharing of content with them, speeding up the entire process. Now, Google has been spotted working on enabling group chats as direct share targets in Google Messages to make the sharing experience better and faster.
In the latest Google Messages beta (v20250218) for Android, Google has added relevant code to display group conversations as direct targets in the share sheet. The Android Authority team managed to activate the feature, confirming that it works.
If you are a heavy Google Messages user and are a part of multiple group chats with your friends and family, this change — once it goes live — will save you a lot of time. It will make sharing content a one-tap process: select the content you want to share, press the share menu, and then select the group from the direct share section.
Currently, this process is a lot more cumbersome, requiring you to first choose Google Messages from the share menu, followed by the conversation.
Do note that even after Google Messages rolls out group chats as direct share targets, they will not automatically appear in your phone’s share menu. The OS decides what share targets to show based on several factors, including how frequently you open that group conversation.
Admittedly, I have only found the feature to show relevant share targets on Pixel phones. On other Android devices, the suggestions almost always seem random. Once the Google Messages group chat you want shows up, you can pin it to the share sheet for easy and quick access.
Google Messages keeps getting better
Google keeps testing small but useful tweaks and changes in its messaging app. It was recently spotted sprucing up the search interface, ditching the list format in favor of a more modern-looking card-style layout.
Some of these changes can take a while to go live. However, whenever they do, they help improve the overall experience of using one of the best messaging apps for Android even better.