- Code in a beta version of Google Messages suggests that a “nudges” feature might be on the way.
- In theory, this would work the same way as the Gmail feature, which highlights important emails that you haven’t replied to.
- You can already set reminders for messages manually, but this would be done automatically.
We all made it: an important text message comes in and you read it, but you’re too busy to reply right now. You put it aside and then discover days later that you never responded. In the meantime, the person you didn’t reply to is pretty upset about it.
According to an APK teardown from XDA developer, this could be a thing of the past for users of Google Messages. The code in the latest beta version of the app suggests that Google could bring “nudges” into the SMS app. This feature would move conversations that Google thinks you forgot to the top of your conversation list.
See also: The best SMS apps and SMS apps for Android
A function of the same name is already available in Gmail. With that in mind, we expect the Messages version to work the same way. The APK teardown shows that you likely have two options: flag messages that you may need to reply to and messages that you may need to follow up.
Since this is an unannounced feature in a beta version of the Google Messages app, it is unclear whether this will ever hit the market. However, given the usefulness of the feature as well as its occurrence in Gmail, we think it is very likely that it will land at some point.
Note that you can already set manual reminders in Google Messages. However, since this is something to keep in mind, it isn’t quite as useful as an automatic nudging system.