Google is now rolling out a big redesign of the gallery and camera interface to its Messages app. These changes are now rolling out widely, following initial testing that started back in November last year.
Google decided to overhaul the gallery UI in its Messages app
Once this design lands on your device, these are the changes you may expect. When you tap the gallery icon, the one in the text field, the gallery will no longer slide up a half sheet, which contains both a live camera and recent images. Instead, you’ll get a full-screen viewfinder that takes up the top portion of the screen.
At the bottom, you’ll see a grid showing 3-6 of your most recent images. If you swipe up, you’ll fully expand the gallery, and the ‘Folders’ shortcut will be placed at the very bottom. Tapping that will take you to the system photo picker.
There’s also a nice preview with a blurred background now, after you take a new picture or select an existing one. The app allows you to ‘Write a caption’ before you send an image. The trash icon can now be found in the bottom-left corner.
HD and HD+ icons are now image quality indicators
Furthermore, in the app bar, you’ll see an ‘HD’ or ‘HD+’ icon. The first option will optimize the image quality to use less data when you’re sending it. The ‘HD+’ option will basically send the image in full resolution.
Yes, these changes are rolling out to the stable version of the Google Messages app, after slowly making their way across the beta channel. We believe that the rollout is not directly tied to a specific app version, at least not solely. A server-side change is likely also included. So all you can do is install the latest version of the app and… wait.
2025-06-06 15:05:54