With the introduction of the RCS Universal Profile, Android Messages was no longer a simple SMS/MMS client. Rather, it evolved into a fully featured messaging app that, with global adoption, could eventually become a competitor to Apple iMessage and even other messaging apps like WhatsApp or Telegram. While it's slowly improving, it's definitely not yet ready to compete in the big leagues as it's still missing certain key features of basic chat clients. As Google works with OEMs to add Android Messages as the stock messaging app or another RCS-compliant default messaging app, Google continues to polish Android Messages, and the latest update revamps the app's internal search feature.

Previously, you could only look up keywords via Android Messages' search feature which would let you search for a specific word in contact names as well as your message history. It's a pretty barebones search feature for a search giant, and it makes sense that Google wants to revamp it. The new, revamped search feature, which is rolling out to users very soon, allows you to search by contact or type of content. Looking up a contact name will now bring up detailed information about that contact, including media and other content shared by that person in private and group conversations. In a similar fashion, you can also search individually for videos, photos, links, and addresses. These improvements, according to Google, are meant to help relive past moments more easily.

Android Messages Search

As we already mentioned, the update isn't available to users yet. It's set to begin rolling out during the course of this week, according to Google. We'll keep you informed on any future updates to Android Messages that are either announced or quietly rolled out to users.


Source: Google