Google Messages is rolling out a fix for its most annoying oversight

Given that Google Messages is the default messaging app on many Android flagships these days, some improvements couldn’t arrive sooner. Users have long complained about a simple oversight in Google Messages: the ability to copy a part of the message, and Google has taken its own sweet time to address this limitation. We finally spotted the company working on a fix last month, and now the ability to copy a part of the message is beginning to roll out to some users in the beta branch.

With Google Messages v20260306 beta, we’re now able to copy a specific part of a text message on one of our devices (OnePlus 13R).

This is very likely a staged rollout, as we can’t see the same ability on some of our other phones, even though we’re on the same Messages app version.

Google Messages offers the ability to long-press a message, but annoyingly, it only shows a “Copy” option that copies the entire message. This is good for short texts, but it isn’t very convenient for longer texts that contain only some useful data, such as OTPs, links, and addresses. Most users end up copying the whole message into a notes app, another text editor, or a text field, then select the relevant part to copy again.

With the change that is now rolling out in the beta branch, users will now be able to long-press a message and then drag to select a specific portion of the text to copy it. If you want to copy the full message, you can still tap on the “Copy” button to do so.

Have you received the ability to copy text selectively on Google Messages beta? Let us know in the comments below!