Summary
- Captions now appear below images in Google Messages for a more seamless look.
- The change isn’t retroactive and only applies to new images sent with text.
- After being spotted in testing on the beta channel in early July, the new captions design is now widely rolling out.
Earlier today, we reported about an ongoing Google Messages test that we’re not too excited about. It relocates the platform’s read receipts to be in line with messages and not under them. While we like the position change, the redesign also makes it so that read receipts show up on all messages, which can clutter Google Messages’ rather clean UI.
However, alongside the read receipt change, Google also seems to be working on redesigning the way image captions show up, and we’re all for it.
In the past, whenever you sent a photo with accompanying text to a contact on Google Messages, the text appeared above the image, which isn’t really how captions work on most platforms, and looks outright awkward. The new change, s spotted by 9to5Google, finally relocates captions, which now appear underneath the accompanying photo.
In addition, previously, the accompanying text used to go through as its own separate bubble. With the new change, however, users should start seeing the accompanying text appear as part of the image with a joined bubble, offering a more seamless look. This tweak was first spotted in testing back in early July, but now appears to be rolling out widely.
The change isn’t retroactive
This may appear to be a small change in the grand scheme of things, but it does clean up the platform’s UI and can potentially have a big impact on the overall user experience.
It’s worth noting, however, that the change isn’t retroactive. Once the design change rolls out to you, older images with captions won’t start showing up with the new style. Instead, the new UI will kick in only when new images with captions are sent or received.
Also worth noting is that the change only applies to images with accompanying captions sent over RCS. It is likely that Google might expand the new UI to SMS conversations as well, but it is unclear when that might happen.
The new design is rolling out now on the stable Google Messages app, and some AP staff already have access to it.
