Key Takeaways
- An APK teardown of Google Messages revealed new privacy settings for Profiles, letting users control who sees their picture and name.
- Though the feature hasn’t fully launched, it was enabled early in the APK teardown, suggesting the feature is close to fully functional.
- Currently, users can’t upload custom profile photos, as it defaults to their Gmail picture, but future updates like this may add more options.
Google Messages is riding a wave of success lately. All three major US carriers have switched to the app by default now, abandoning their own, limited apps like Verizon Messaging. Meanwhile, Samsung decided to shutter its Messages app in favor of Google’s too. And with this momentum, Google was finally able to convince Apple to add support for RCS, meaning now Google Messages can text your iPhone friends with features that used to require iMessage.
As Google’s RCS app grows more popular, it gains more functions — like the Profiles feature announced last year. Now, Profiles is once more in the spotlight after an APK teardown discovered potential privacy options deep within its code.
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Code sleuth AssembleDebug shared the findings earlier today in a report for Android Authority. Evidence of new settings was discovered in the Google Messages version 20241010 beta, and they appear to give users much more control over who can see individual profiles.
AssembleDebug managed to activate the settings by toggling hidden flags with root to get an early look. When enabled, users get the ability to show or hide their profile picture, and show either their profile name or a short name they choose. You can choose to show your name and photo only to people you message, only to your contacts, or to no one at all. We’ve included screenshots below that demonstrate the options and give you a peek at the profile screen.
Source: AssembleDebug | Android Authority
Things are starting to get a bit social on Google Messages
The “Profiles,” or “Profiles Discovery” feature, suggests that Google still holds tight to its dreams of a social media platform after the failure that was Google Plus, but it’s hard to put too much faith in the function since it hasn’t rolled out to everyone yet, even this long after its initial announcement.
We’re not even entirely sure how the “discovery” part of it will work. Do you need to know the person ahead of time, or can you search for them and see their profiles? That said, it’s good that Google is ahead of the curve and is addressing potential privacy concerns before the feature gets widespread adoption. Once this update rolls out to everyone, you should expect a prompt to set this up when you first log into Google Messages. If you somehow skip that or ignore it, you can find it in the Your profile option of the account switcher.
It’s a welcome change, but it highlights that Google still has a ways to go with the Profiles feature. You still can’t set a custom profile photo; for now, it will reflect whatever your Gmail account shows. As development continues, we’ll keep you updated on any relevant news.