Google Messages update brings pinch-to-zoom, pin conversations
If you message people a lot, chances are Google Messages is one of the most-used apps on your smartphone. There are still a lot of features that we need here that can be found from some of the more popular online messaging apps like Viber, Messenger, WhatsApp, etc. But Google has been releasing several new features to the app and version 8.3.026 seems to have quietly brought a couple of new features. You can now resize the text of your messages with a pinch-to-zoom feature and you will also be able to pin important conversations you want to access easily.
For those that already have a hard time reading things from their smartphone, apps that let you adjust the text size can be a blessing. When you update your Google Messages, you can now resize the text in your conversations simply by doing the pinch-to-zoom action. XDA Developers reminds users that doing this doesn’t actually change the font sizes of messages that you send and receive. It will only reflect on your end and maybe only during when you do the gesture.
The other new feature that we’re getting for this update is the ability to pin conversations at the top of your messages list. This is something that other messaging apps like Viber do as well. This way, you can easily access the conversations that you often use or need to use. You will be able to pin up to 3 conversations at the top of your list and it will ensure that these conversations will not be displaced by other incoming messages.
Some say the pinning feature doesn’t show up yet even when updated to the latest version of Messages. XDA Developers shared that some users have tried clearing the cache and then force closing the app. It doesn’t seem to be tied to any specific OS but it looks like only those with Pixel devices are getting the feature. There’s no news yet if it is a Pixel-only feature or if it will roll out eventually to other non-Pixel devices.
In any case, it would be beneficial to update your Google Messages to the latest version, 8.3.026. If the new features are not yet available to you, you’ll just have to wait a bit.
