2025 was a great year for Google Messages, with the Mountain View tech giant adding a plethora of new features throughout the year. The trend will likely continue this year, as Google Messages is one of the most popular messaging apps and is arguably the best way to text on Android.
Now, we have already started getting some indications about new features Google is working on for the Google Messages app. One of Google’s plans for the Messages app is to make an existing feature less stressful.
9to5Google has decompiled a version of the Google Messages beta APK and found evidence that suggests the company has plans to bring a quality-of-life improvement to Smart Reply, a feature that saves time by showing ready-to-use responses.
Google Messages’ Smart Reply may soon give you more control
Google first rolled out the Smart Reply capability to Google Messages way back in 2018, but since then, there have been no significant improvements to it. That may change in the future, as Google is working on the ability to let users edit those smart replies instead of automatically sending them.
Currently, when you tap on a suggested reply in Google Messages, the app will automatically send it to the other person. While it saves time, you can’t add additional text to those messages, nor can you prevent accidental sends. The new behavior that Google is working on will save the selected smart reply as a draft instead of automatically sending it.
This will let you make changes to the smart reply you selected and then send it. So, there is no possibility of you accidentally selecting the wrong smart reply and sending it. Even if you pick the wrong one, you have the opportunity to correct it in the draft before sending it.
9to5Google found only the codes inside a beta version of the Google Messages app, so there is no clarity on what the UI will look like or whether this feature will be optional.
If Google indeed wants to make it optional, Google Messages users will likely be able to control the messaging behavior by going to Settings> Suggestions. The Smart Reply feature is currently available as a toggle on the “Suggestions” page.
While we hope Google will soon make this a reality, the codes alone don’t guarantee the arrival of the said improvements to the Smart Reply. The company may change its plan and scrap the feature before rolling it out to the public, so keep your expectations in check.
