Google Messages update

 Google Messages working to allow users to edit sent text messages

Google is all set to a add a new feature for its Messages app. This deemed necessary to compete with the likes of Telegram and WhatsApp in the IM space. According to reports available, the latest version of Google Messages beta app which was released in November had traces of a message editing feature. The company has been trying to make RCS (Rich Communication Services) more appealing to the users with features like support for HDR images. However, it looks Google is working on more features for the messages app.

These four new flags were added to Google Messages codebase:

bugle.enable_edit_ui

The first flag suggests that there will be UI to edit the messages 

bugle.load_edit_history

The second flag will show the edit history

bugle.process_outgoing_edits

bugle.process_incoming_edits

The third and fourth flags define how the edits are sent or received by the app.

While, message editing is not a native feature of RCS, that should not be a big problem for Google. Earlier also, Google implemented end-to-end encryption in Google Messages even though end-to-end encryption is not a part of RCS standard. Currently, there is no way of knowing when the feature will be available to the Android users. Right now, the flags don't do anything on the beta build of the app as the codebase is not complete.

There is a chance that Google may scrap the feature altogether if it is not feasible for the company. However, message editing would be an excellent feature especially since Google is already trying to catch-up with the likes of WhatsApp who already allow users to edit messages within a certain time frame. Furthermore, there were references to a creation of a new database which will allow meta data to be stored. This will include data such as edit history, edit timestamp and more.