Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is testing a new media gallery UI with a fullscreen camera viewfinder alongside the ability to caption your media before sending it.
- This test also includes the option to choose “original quality” media for sending photos and videos in full resolution.
- These changes are rolling out slowly to some beta users.
Google’s messaging strategy may still be a mess, but the Google Messages app is clearly the company’s favorite child. Google Messages took center stage for RCS adoption on Android, and Google has been diligently adding new features to the app to make it the prime choice for users. The latest beta for the app has redesigned the media gallery UI, giving us a fullscreen camera viewfinder that frankly feels jarring.
The latest Google Messages beta, v20241118_03_RC00, is slowly rolling out a new, redesigned media gallery UI when attaching an image or video. You now get a fullscreen UI when you try to add an image using the Gallery button on the right of the text compose field. The button launches a camera UI, and you can scroll to the bottom to view images and videos in your device storage.
After selecting an image, you can also add a caption to it, which you couldn’t do previously.
The app update is also rolling out the option for sending media in full resolution, i.e., in its original quality, which we had previously highlighted in our APK teardown report. This will give beta users more control over how they send media, as previously, Google Messages would simply compress all media to use less data without giving users any recourse.
When sending media to an RCS chat in Google Messages, the app will now prompt you once to select between “Optimized for chat” and “Original quality” as your choice for current and future chats. Google marks the default compressed media as “HD,” while the full-resolution media is marked as “HD+.” You can switch between the two on the fly by pressing the HD+ icon in the top right corner. You can also switch back to the camera viewfinder by clicking the Camera icon in the top right corner.
These changes are rolling out to some beta users. We expect a wider rollout in the beta branch soon, followed by a stable rollout after Google takes note of the feedback.
The existing gallery UI was already fairly functional
The media attachment UI currently available in the stable branch of Google Messages is already fairly functional. It takes a compact approach that doesn’t force you into a fullscreen UI, letting you make selections without leaving the conversation screen. For reference, this is the UI currently available to users in the stable branch:
You do miss out on the ability to caption images and send them in the original resolution, but those changes could be assimilated within the current UI, too. The new UI has an unnecessary focus on clicking a new photo, which slows down the process of attaching media if you just want to attach something you recently downloaded. For these reasons, it feels the upcoming UI appears to complicate what is a simpler process flow, so we’re curious why Google decided to reinvent the wheel here.
Did you receive the new gallery UI and the original media quality option in the Google Messages beta app? Let us know in the comments below!