Google Messages preps useful changes to saving media, sharing location, and more

Google’s constantly updating its Android apps, but not every change is going to have a monumental impact. Far more often, developers are just trying something new to see what they can improve, tweaking app UIs with new menu listings, button placements, and screen layouts. Even those seemingly small changes are of interest to Android enthusiasts like us, and today we’ve collected a few of them that are in the works for Google Messages.

Today we’re looking at the app’s recent messages.android_20251121_00_RC01.phone.openbeta_dynamic build, and while none of the updates we’re highlighting here are currently user-facing, consider this a preview of what devs have been working on behind the scenes.

For starters, we’ve got a little tweak to what you’ll see when saving a media file that’s been shared in a conversation, along with what you’re able to do next. Right now, when saving media you’ll get a pop-up snackbar confirming the file’s been saved.

But in addition to a simple confirmation, Messages is now preparing to add the option to directly open the file. Sure, you’re already looking at in in the conversation, but if you want to open it in another app (or just confirm that it’s actually saved), this should be a nice addition.

Here’s a quick look at that update in action:

Beyond that, we’ve also identified a little change that Messages is considering for location sharing.

Right now, when you tap the plus sign to the left of the text-entry field in Messages, the app presents you with the option to share you current location.

Going forward, that may see a change, as Google considers making it very explicit that this is about sharing your current location at the moment, and not about any kind of ongoing location-sharing.

At least, that’s the impression we get from the way that option’s label has been updated, but internally the app refers to it as enable_live_location_sharing_extension. Confusingly, “live” location sounds like the exact opposite of one-time sharing (at least, it implies “ongoing” to our ears), so Google may have further plans here that we’ve yet to get a full sense of.

Finally, we’ve got a little change here — although one that’s getting bigger!

Google’s packed everything it makes with a hearty serving of Gemini, and of course, that includes Messages. In fact, Google wants you thinking about Gemini so much that it’s given the service a prominent floating action button (FAB) for easy access.

That’s how it looks now, over on the left, but perhaps we haven’t been interacting with Gemini in Messages quite enough for Google’s taste, because it’s now considering making the Gemini FAB a little more prominent, blowing it up to match the size of the chat button.

That’s all we’ve got for now. Like we said, none of these are huge changes, but we’ll keep working to identify them and spot new trends for Messages before they happen.