I love Google Messages, but I still miss these 5 iMessage features

Google Messages has come a long way in the past couple of years. RCS is finally the default messaging protocol on most Android flagships, and small quality-of-life features like read receipts and typing indicators behave the way you’d expect.

The app finally feels like a worthy rival to iMessage, and texting between Android and iPhone no longer feels like the downgrade it once did. Samsung, in fact, believes Google Messages has gotten so good that it has even stopped preloading its own Messages app on Galaxy devices in favor of Google’s.

But spend enough time switching between the two, especially if you’re testing devices across both ecosystems, and the gaps start to show. I’ve had the chance to properly test iOS 27 through the recent beta releases, and now, ahead of its official debut in September alongside the new iPhone lineup, I can say with confidence that Google Messages still hasn’t nailed it.

I still can’t copy just part of a message on Google Messages

This is one feature Google apparently started rolling out a few months ago, but I still don’t have it on my phone.

Right now, if someone sends me a long message with, say, an address or some other important information, and I only need to copy one part of it, I can’t. Google Messages only lets me copy the entire message.

My current workaround is to copy the whole message, tap the floating “Copied” notification, and then manually select and copy just the part I actually wanted. It works, but it’s far more cumbersome than it needs to be.

With iOS 27, Apple added the ability to select and copy only a portion of a message, and it’s one of those features you don’t realize you need until you start using it.

I know Google is already rolling out this functionality, so there’s a good chance this frustration won’t last much longer. But until it reaches everyone, it remains one of my biggest annoyances with Google Messages.

Please let me hide the recording button

If there’s one thing that annoys me every single time I open Google Messages, it’s the giant voice recording button sitting right next to the text box.

I know plenty of people who regularly send voice messages, but I’m just not one of them. This means that the voice recording button is basically wasted space for me.

What’s even more frustrating is how easy it is to confuse it with the voice-to-text button. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve accidentally tapped the recording button, only to realize it wasn’t what I was looking for. The worst part, however, is that there’s still no simple way to hide it if you never use voice messages.

Apple, after plenty of back-and-forth (and even a bit of involvement from Justin Bieber), eventually added the option to hide the recording button in iMessage. It’s about time Google gave us the same choice in Messages.

It’s 2026, and text formatting is still missing

I can’t believe I’m writing this, but it’s 2026, and Google Messages on Android still doesn’t support inline text formatting. That means if you want to make part of your message bold, italic, underlined, or strikethrough, you simply can’t do it.

This is a pretty basic feature that almost every other messaging app on Android already supports, which makes it all the more strange that Google still hasn’t added it after all these years.

Apple, on the other hand, has made text formatting a meaningful part of the Messages experience. There are always those moments when you want to make a particular word bold just to make sure your friend understands you’re being serious, or use italics to add a bit more emphasis to what you’re trying to say.

It’s a small feature in the grand scheme of things, but these are exactly the kind of quality-of-life improvements that Google Messages is still missing.

Google still hasn’t figured out true multi-device messaging

I know Google has made progress here over the past couple of years. Google Messages now syncs conversations between Android devices much better than before, and the web client has improved significantly.

But every time I switch back to Apple’s ecosystem and see how seamlessly iMessage works across devices, Google Messages still feels like it’s only halfway there.

So, for example, if I start typing a message on my Mac and then need to continue on my iPhone, the draft is waiting exactly where I left it. The same goes for notifications. My messages appear on all my Apple devices at the same time, rather than being tied to a single device. Everything just stays in sync.

I know these sound like small things, but they’re the kind of details that make iMessage feel like a truly multi-device messaging platform.

The smaller, cheekier features are still missing entirely

Beyond those bigger functionality gaps, there’s also a long list of smaller, cheekier features that Google Messages still doesn’t have.

For example, iMessage has had message effects for years, and there’s still nothing comparable in Google Messages. Full-screen animations, bubble effects, and other little touches make birthday wishes and celebratory messages feel a lot more fun, but they’re completely absent on Android.

Then there are features like changing the playback speed of voice messages or the new drawing tool Apple introduced with iOS 27. Sure, you’re probably not going to use these every day, but they’re nice to have when you need them.

Look, none of these features are essential on their own. But together, they’re the kind of thoughtful touches that make an app feel more polished and considered, rather than simply functional. That’s one of the biggest reasons Google Messages still isn’t my preferred messaging app.

I could probably keep going and list another dozen small features I miss, but my biggest request to Google is pretty simple: make Google Messages feel a little more fun and a little more thoughtful.

Oh, and while you’re at it, please make it easier to disable Gemini. I already have three separate ways to access it. I really don’t need it inside my messaging app as well.