Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- With an upcoming feature, Google could start showing group chats in the Messages app’s New conversation screen.
- The feature will add a new Group chats section to search results on the New conversation page that redirects you to corresponding chats.
- Google is currently testing it in the latest Messages beta release, and it could arrive on the stable channel with a future update.
Google Messages is working on a new change that will let you easily send a message to an existing group chat from the New conversation screen. The feature adds a new Group chats section to the search suggestions, which lists all the available group chats corresponding to your search keyword.
Google is currently testing this feature in the latest Messages beta release (version 20240820_00_RC00), according to a recent report from 9to5Google. As you can see in the attached screenshot, it adds a Group chats section under individual contacts when you enter a search term in the “To” field on the New conversation page.
With this feature, you’ll be able to search for group chats using a search term related to the group’s name or its participants. It will display all corresponding chats in the new section with a preview of the last message. Selecting a resulting group chat will redirect you to it.
It’s worth noting that Google Messages’ search functionality already works for group chats and lets you look up chats based on the group’s name or its participants. This upcoming feature will just give users another way to achieve the same result.
As mentioned earlier, the feature is currently limited to the latest Google Messages beta release. It could reach users with a future update alongside some of the other in-development changes, like the Magic Compose revamp and new animations. Google might also be ready to finally bring dual-SIM support for RCS chats to the app, as the company recently started testing it on the beta channel after a brief rollout earlier this year.