Joe Maring / Android Authority
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TL;DR
- Google Messages is quietly rolling out the ability to set custom chat themes for standard SMS conversations.
- Chat themes were previously limited to RCS chats in the messaging app.
- This change may have been facilitated by chat themes being limited to the person who set it rather than everybody in the conversation.
While Google Messages has long let users customize their RCS chats with a selection of colors, it got a major upgrade in August with the introduction of chat themes, a feature we first uncovered in May. One key limitation of this customization tool is that it only works with RCS chats. It now looks like Google has flipped the switch for standard SMS/texts, too.
As a Reddit user points out, Google Messages appears to have quietly enabled chat themes for non-RCS chats. A quick look on my Pixel 6a confirms this, with a red dot prompting users to try it for the first time.
It’s unclear how long this feature has been active, and we can’t find any official support page document that mentions this expansion to include non-RCS chats.
While RCS messaging is becoming the norm, it hasn’t fully replaced conventional text messages yet. With this in mind, it makes sense for Google to bring this feature to all Messages users.
In addition to finding chat themes via the three-dot menu at the top right of the conversation, users can also access this feature on the contact info page by tapping the user’s name.
The new chat theme feature limits the wallpaper to the person who sets it. By contrast, the previous “Change colors” option, which was also limited to RCS chats, changed the colors for everyone in the chat.
Removing this limitation means that every Google Messages conversation, whether RCS or SMS, can be decorated with preset or custom wallpapers and the user’s preferred colors. Since changes are only reflected locally on your phone, there was nothing holding Google Messages back from implementing this customization feature for standard texts as well.
So, if you have someone in your contacts who still uses the old-fashioned SMS, there’s finally a way to give the chat a visual upgrade.
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