10 Google Messages tips and tricks I can’t live without (2026 guide)

If you have an Android phone, you almost certainly use Google Messages. Maybe not because you love the app, but because it’s gradually become the de facto texting app of choice on Android.

Although it may not be the most robust or customizable texting app available, Google Messages also isn’t lacking in features. As someone who uses the app every single day, I’ve found a few tricks and settings over the years that have significantly improved how much I enjoy it.

If you’re a Google Messages user, here are 10 tips you may not have known about, all of which make Messages significantly better.

If you’re like me, you have a lot of conversations in Google Messages at any given time. That can make finding your most important chats difficult, and that’s where pins come to the rescue.

On the Google Messages home page, press and hold a message, then tap the pin icon at the top of the screen. Upon doing so, that conversation is pinned to the top of your Messages app — making it that much easier to find.

You can pin up to 20 conversations at once, although I’ve found pinning is most effective when you limit it to five or fewer chats. Regardless of how many pinned convos you want to have, everyone should use this feature.

On the main Google Messages page, you have two available swipe gestures: swipe right on a conversation to archive it, and swipe left to mark a conversation as read/unread. These are great default controls, but did you know you can change each one to do something else?

Tap your profile icon at the top of the Messages app, tap Messages settings, scroll down the page, and then tap Swipe actions. From here, tap the Customize button to change what each one does.

There are only four options available (archive, delete, mark as read or unread, and off), but it’s still a nice touch. That said, it’d be great to see Google add more actions down the road.

Whether you’re a late-night texter or talking with someone in a different time zone, you’ve probably found yourself in a situation where you wanted to send a text but were worried about disturbing the person on the other end. That’s where scheduled messages come in handy.

After typing your text in Google Messages, press and hold the send button. This will display the schedule menu, where you can choose to send a message later that day, tonight, tomorrow morning, or any specific day and time. After picking a scheduled time, you’ll see it displayed above your text, and the send icon will have a clock next to it.

We’ve all been there before: someone texted you something important, you need to look it up, but — for the life of you — you can’t find it. Google Messages’ search function works well, but there’s another method that’s arguably even better.

To save a text message for later, press and hold it, then tap the star icon near the top of the screen. After doing this, you’ll see a star icon displayed near the bottom of the message — making it stand out more in your conversation.

Once a message is starred, you can tap the search button at the top of Google Messages and then tap Starred to see all of your starred messages. Starring takes just a second, yet it can be immensely helpful. I highly recommend this one.

Group messages. You’re probably in a few of them, and you probably like some more than others. You used to not have much control over these group chats, but since Google Messages’ widespread adoption of RCS in 2019 — and iPhone users joining the RCS party in 2024 — managing these groups is better than ever.

Open any group message you’re a part of and tap the name of the conversation at the top of the screen (likely a list of the names of people in the chat). From here, you have a few important options.

If you tap the pencil icon next to the group chat name, you can rename it whatever you’d like (up to 100 characters). And if everyone in the group chat is using RCS, they’ll see the new name, too. You can also tap Snooze chat to silence notifications from the conversation. You can do this for individual conversations, too, but it’s more useful with group chats.

Finally, if you’re in a group chat you no longer want to be a part of, tap Leave group. Just like that, you’re free.

As minor as it is, I hate it when someone texts me a link and Google Messages won’t show a preview until I manually tap to see it. It’s really not that big of a deal, but it annoys me every time it happens. The good news is that you can change this.

Tap your profile icon at the top of Google Messages, tap Messages settings, scroll down the page, and tap Automatic previews. This is where you’ll find settings to control link previews, including options to show all previews, show only web link previews, and to only download previews when you’re connected to Wi-Fi.

One of my personal favorite Google Messages features is the ability to send/receive messages from the desktop site on my computer. It’s not the most innovative thing in the world, and it’s existed since 2018, but it’s still something I rely on every single day.

To get started, open any web browser on your computer and head to messages.google.com/web. Below the sign-in button, click Pair with QR code.

Next, open Google Messages on your phone, tap your profile icon at the top, tap Device pairing, and tap QR code scanner. Scan the QR code on your computer with your phone, and within a second, you should see all of your Google Messages conversations on your computer.

If you’re a sucker for customization like I am, you’ll like this next tip. By default, Google Messages uses a blue/gray color scheme for all of your conversations. But did you know you can change this? Because you can!

Open any conversation in Google Messages, tap the three dots in the top-right corner, and tap Change colors. From here, you can choose between nine different colors — including teal, purple, green, red, and more.

It’s worth noting that this only changes the color of that specific conversation. As such, if you want to have different colors for texts with your mom, partner, friend, and work group chat, you can.

Another customization tip is that you can change your Google Messages profile picture. This is what other Google Messages users see when you’re texting them.

To do this, open Google Messages, tap your profile icon in the top corner, and tap Your profile. From this page, tap the camera icon next to your existing profile picture to see a list of ways to change your picture — including taking a new photo, choosing an existing photo from your gallery, or selecting a Google-made illustration.

Note that this also changes your profile photo for your entire Google account, not just Google Messages.

Last but certainly not least, there’s that pesky Gemini button on the Google Messages home screen. While there are some clever ways to use Gemini in Google Messages, I’ve not onced ever wanted to use it. Thankfully, you can hide that Gemini button if you’re equally tired of seeing it.

Open Google Messages, tap your profile icon, tap Messages settings, tap Gemini in Messages, and tap the toggle next to Show Gemini button to disable it. Go back to your Google Messages home screen, and the Gemini button is gone. Hooray!

Those are my favorite ways to change/customize Google Messages. Are any of these features your favorite? Do you have another Google Messages tip I didn’t mention here? Share your best tips in the comments below.