{"id":446744,"date":"2025-12-14T15:55:43","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T15:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/446744\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T15:55:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T15:55:43","slug":"google-messages-has-a-major-problem-and-im-sick-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/446744\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Messages has a major problem, and I’m sick of it"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pixel<\/p>\n

Stephen Headrick \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

I\u2019m tired of Google Messages on the web. Tired of constantly having to re-verify my credentials. Tired of not being able to send a voice message. Tired of a watered-down version of what has turned into quite a beautiful messaging application on Android phones. In a world where iMessage<\/a>, WhatsApp<\/a>, Signal<\/a>, Telegram<\/a>, and so many other incredible options exist, it\u2019s time for Google to expand its recently improved messaging<\/a> efforts beyond the smartphone.<\/p>\n

What is your primary messaging service?<\/p>\n

199 votes<\/p>\n

Built-in messages app<\/p>\n

62%<\/p>\n

WhatsApp<\/p>\n

23%<\/p>\n

Signal<\/p>\n

10%<\/p>\n

Other (let us know in the comments!)<\/p>\n

6%<\/p>\n

Messaging matters on other devices, too<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/p>\n

Stephen Headrick \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

Don’t get me started on how frequently I have to re-verify my account in the web app…<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s only native messaging app is built for mobile Android devices. The company has given a lot of love and attention to its mobile app over the past year, with a pretty steady stream of UI updates and new features that have turned the app into quite an enjoyable experience.<\/p>\n

When using the Messages Android app<\/a>, you can feel that it\u2019s been built specifically for mobile. It feels native to the platform. Animations are smooth. Interactions are responsive. The app uses Google\u2019s latest Material 3 Expressive design guidelines throughout its interface. Messages for mobile is very obviously a modern experience.<\/p>\n

However, using Google Messages on either your computer or tablet feels like an entirely different experience. The lack of feature parity to its mobile counterpart is genuinely shocking to me.<\/p>\n

To be clear, the basics are the same on any device. You can send messages, react with emojis, attach photos, etc. \u2014\u00a0you know, what you\u2019d expect from any messaging app. But just below those surface-level features, the entire experience begins to fall apart.<\/p>\n

\"Voice<\/p>\n

Stephen Headrick \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

Voice messaging is the perfect example. On mobile, Google has implemented a gorgeous voice messaging interface. You can add emojis and colors to the voice message to emphasize the emotion of what you say, and it even includes optional noise cancellation. Google must know voice messaging is widely used, as the button to begin this type of message is one of the most prominent buttons in a chat, placed just above the keyboard to the right of the text box.<\/p>\n

Contrast this pleasant design on Android with what you get on tablets and web \u2014 or should I say, what you don\u2019t get. Voice messaging on these other two platforms simply doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

What about scheduling a message to be sent later, which is standard on every other modern messaging platform? Oh, that\u2019s easy to find in the Android app. You can either long-press the send button to schedule the message, or you can tap the plus button on the left side of the text box to find that option. This feels even more basic than voice messaging, and yet, you won\u2019t find this feature on the other two platforms.<\/p>\n

What am I even looking at?<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/p>\n

Stephen Headrick \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

The design of the web and tablet app might be the most egregious issue of all. Compared to the mobile Android app, this version of Google Messages looks like it wasn\u2019t even made by the same company. Take away the Google logo from the top left of the window and perhaps the user account button from the top right, and Messages hardly looks like a modern Google product.<\/p>\n

\"Pixel<\/p>\n

Stephen Headrick \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

With the web app, you don\u2019t see the little RCS chat bubble on your friend\u2019s profile picture (to indicate it\u2019s an RCS chat<\/a>) like you do on phones. The text box itself looks entirely different, as well, and frankly, it\u2019s not a great design. It looks dated. Additionally, you\u2019ll find numerous sharp corners from previous design standards, while the Android app has rounded off those corners to modernize its look. You don\u2019t even get your Material You theme on the other two platforms. Why not sync that from your Android device?<\/p>\n

Holding out hope<\/p>\n

Google can create cohesive experiences across different platforms. A decent example is Google Keep<\/a>, which I also frequently use. My experience on my Pixel phone is functionally identical to what I find on my Pixel tablet and my MacBook. The web version lags a bit on the design side \u2014 Keep for Android has incorporated the latest Material 3 Expressive principals, while the web version has not \u2014 but at least the functionality is there. The design updates will likely follow, but at least I know I can accomplish what I need to accomplish on any of the devices. You\u2019ll also see this feature parity in Gmail, Tasks, Chrome, Calendar, and many of Google\u2019s other apps.<\/p>\n

\"Message<\/p>\n

Stephen Headrick \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

I believe Google will get this right. It\u2019s more of a question of when. Messaging is a core app, not some random service that barely sees any use. We\u2019ve watched Google step up its messaging game over the last few years, making really good headway in its fight to bring messaging on Android to a competitive level, right up there with iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and the other big players. In order to truly compete, though, Google needs to fix this parity issue. With billions in profit each year, this is not an issue of resources. This is an issue of priorities, and messaging, being one of the main uses of a smartphone, should definitely be near the top of the list.<\/p>\n

Thank you for being part of our community. Read our\u00a0Comment Policy<\/a> before posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen Headrick \/ Android Authority I\u2019m tired of Google Messages on the web. Tired of constantly having to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":446745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2718,54091,2722,194992,158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-446744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-android","9":"tag-android-apps","10":"tag-google","11":"tag-google-messages","12":"tag-technology","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115718739561069507","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}