Google’s Message app can now handle iMessage reactions, challenges Apple with new features

Google is giving its default messaging app a big upgrade, the company announced today. The Messages app, which comes pre-installed on most Android phones, will gain a number of new features with the update. Most notably, it will address the long-standing issue where iMessage’s “Tapbacks” weren’t delivered as emoji reactions, but were rather sent as a separate message. It’s an annoyance that’s made chats between Android and iPhone users confusing, cluttered and far too noisy.

Other coming updates include nudges to remind you to reply to messages you missed, separate tabs for business and personal messages, reminders about birthdays you may want to celebrate, support for sharper videos via a Google Photos integration, and an expanded set of emoji mashups, among other things.

After the update, reactions from iPhone users will be sent as an emoji on text messages on Android. As on iMessage, the emoji reaction — like love, laughter, confusion, or excitement — will appear on the right side of the message. (On Android, it’s the bottom right.) This feature is first rolling out to Android devices set to English, but additional languages will follow.

Image Credits: Google

These improved reactions were already available to beta users of the Messages app, but Google had not yet said when they will become available to the public. Testers had noted that Android’s interpretation of which emoji to use varies slightly from iPhone, however. For instance, the “heart” reaction on Android becomes the “face with the heart eyes” emoji. And the iMessage’s exclamation mark reaction becomes the “face with the open mouth” emoji.

Google is also integrating Google Photos into the Message app to improve the video sharing experience. While the modern RCS standard allows people with Android devices to share high-quality videos with each other, those same videos appear blurry when shared with those on iPhone, as iMessage doesn’t support RCS. By sending the link to the video through Google Photos, iPhone users will be able to watch the video in the same high resolution. This feature will later include support for photos, too.

This addition aims to push Apple to adopt the industry standard by shaming the company over video quality.

Google thus far has been very vocal about Apple’s decision to avoid supporting RCS — largely because RCS adoption would allow Google to better compete with Apple’s iMessage. But Google is not wrong when it points out that Apple is not serving its own customers very well by having iMessage fall back to the older standard of SMS, which is less secure. (An odd choice for a privacy-focused company like Apple claims to be.)