Google Messages could change how you react to messages

One of the great things about using Google messages (besides the image captioning feature that’s coming) is the fact that you can hold your finger down on the button to add a reaction. This is very quick and convenient, but it seems that Google wants to make a change to it. According to a new report, Google will add a double-tap gesture to use a reaction in Google Messages.

One thing to note is that this was discovered in an APK Deep dive. This means that the information may not be 100% accurate. 9To5Google dug into the code for the most recent version of the Google messages app, and it discovered strings alluding to this feature. However, it’s not a guarantee that Google will unveil this feature in the future. So, you will want to take this news with a grain of salt.

Google Messages could use a double-tap gesture to add a reaction.

Currently, if you want to access additional settings for your messages in Google Messages, you have to hold your finger down on the message. This process isn’t particularly long or labor intensive. When you do so, you will summon the tray holding all of your available reactions. Along with that, you’ll also be able to access additional options for the message. These are the star, copy, and delete options. You’ll also see a three-dot menu that has the forward, view details, and share options.

Having those both being summoned by the same gesture isn’t really a big issue. However, it appears that Google feels differently. According to the APK deep-dive, it appears that the company wants to make adding a reaction a double-tap gesture in Google Messages. So, instead of holding your finger down on a message to add a reaction, all you have to do is tap on it twice.

9To5Google discovered this in version 20240208 _00_RC00 of the Google Messages app. At this point, there’s no telling when/if Google plans on releasing this feature. It doesn’t seem like a future that’s big enough to get much fanfare, so it doesn’t seem likely that the company will release it during another future drop. However, that remains to be seen. This could be another nice feature like the Photomoji feature recently introduced.