A crucial privacy upgrade could be coming to Google Messages
The big Google news of the week might be the long-awaited launch of Android 15 and the contents of the latest Pixel feature drop, but Google's not stopping there. A new APK teardown has revealed many privacy-centric features that could be coming to Google Messages in the future.
Assemble Debug (via Android Authority) noticed a bunch of new profile features while exploring code in the latest Google Messages beta. While these new features aren't active yet, Assemble Debug was able to get some of them working by toggling hidden flags. And it sounds like these features could offer a little more user privacy and better control over who can see your profile.
Once enabled, the flags allowed Assemble Debug to hide their profile picture and either hide their profile name or add a shortened version. The idea is that you can choose whether the people you're messaging can see all your information. Options include showing everything to people you message, just your saved contacts or nobody.
Google Messages could end up playing a much more significant role going forward. All thanks to Apple launching RCS messaging and various other companies ditching their own messaging apps in favor of Google's option. So, having better privacy options is necessary to ensure people aren't accidentally doxing themselves simply by having a Google Messages profile.
That's especially true when you consider we heard about a new "Profile Discovery" feature earlier this year, which would let you publicly display your profile. Just in case someone you message wants to find out who's behind the unknown number. The last thing you want is to publicly broadcast your identity if you didn't intend to.
There's no word on when the new profile privacy features might arrive or if Google has more options on the way. But it's good to see that the company is taking that subject seriously as Google Messages expands on how it has been doing. Let's hope that the profile privacy features become publicly available sooner rather than later.