Introduction of Google Messages Magic

 Google Messages Magic Compose is available internationally now

Google started rolling out Magic Compose, which was announced at I/O 2023.  After initially being limited to the US in May, Magic Compose in Google Messages is now seeing some international availability. Once available, Magic Compose appears to the left of the old compose UI, or after the emoji shortcut on the redesigned text field, which should be seeing wider availability in the beta channel.

The Magic Compose feature is currently only available with RCS messages and it remains to be seen when it will support SMS and MMS. Users still need to be in the Google Messages beta program, carrier services, and above the age of 18 years signed in to their Google account. Those who have access to the Magic Compose can find the chat bubble after the emoji shortcut on the text field. To opt in the feature, select ‘Try it’ or to opt-out choose ‘No thanks’. Tapping on the chat bubble will bring up AI-generated responses from scratch. Users can also edit the suggestions they want to use. 

After you tap the pencil and sparkle icon, Magic Compose will send up to 20 of your previous messages, emojis, reactions, and URLs to Google to generate relevant and contextual suggestions. Messages with attachments, voice messages and images are not sent to Google servers, but image captions and voice transcriptions may be sent. Google then “discards the messages from the servers.” They are not stored or used “to train machine learning models.” 

Magic Compose is one of the many AI-powered features from Google when it comes to generative AI. Depending on the context of the conversation, the feature can be used to reply to text messages using suggested responses or improvements to what a user has written them self. Magic Compose also allows users to rewrite the text in seven styles including remix, excited, chill, shakespeare, lyrical, formal or short. If the user is dissatisfied with the suggested responses, the Magic Compose can also rewrite the draft based on the preferred style of the user. To perform this action, users have to tap on the pencil and sparkle icon. The message can be edited if necessary before hitting the send button.  

Users get a list of suggestions, and selecting one will place it in the text field. If you’re already written something, launching Magic Compose will let you change it with one of seven styles: Remix, Excited, Chill, Shakespeare, Lyrical, Formal, or Short. At launch, this feature was “only available in English on Android phones with US SIM cards.” Recently, we had reports of it being available in France and the UK. You still have to be in the Play Store betas for Google Messages and Carrier Services, signed into your Google Account and over 18. 

Google One Premium members “have priority access as more spots become available.” Google says that when Magic Compose is used, up to 20 previous messages are sent to Google servers to generate suggestions. These are then discarded from the servers and not stored to train machine learning models.