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Google Messages will soon do more to reflect your personal style. The latest beta of Android’s official SMS and RCS messaging app includes hidden code for custom conversation wallpapers, suggestign the feature will be ready soon.
Visit a thread’s overflow menu, and you’ll see a Chat Themes option that lets you choose not just a color theme but a wallpaper to match, Android Authority explains. Google supplies some backgrounds of its own based around concepts like art and space, but you can provide your own if you’d like a partner or pet to be visible. You can reset if you’re unhappy with your selections.
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The feature isn’t active yet, but it appears complete enough that Google could enable it for testers on short notice. Evidence has been present for about a month. It’s not clear when Google will make custom wallpapers available in the regular Messages release.
Just in time for Samsung Messages fans
You won’t have to lose wallpapers when you switch
The beta timing is apt. Samsung Messages is shutting down in July, leaving fans of its custom wallpapers looking for alternatives. Samsung already makes Google Messages the default for many Galaxy phone owners (you can’t even download Samsung Messages on an S26), so this could ease the transition if you’re reluctant to switch.
It also provides more consistency if you’re used to proprietary messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Signal, where some degree of customization has been available for a while. It should be easier to recognize a favorite contact when they ping you on another platform.
You don’t have to use Google Messages if you want similar functionality. Third-party texting apps like Textra and Pulse SMS have offered wallpapers and other personalization for a while. With that said, Google Messages is the only way to get the broadest possible RCS messaging support on Android. You might have to use the official solution if you want customization without making compromises in key areas.