TL; DR
- Google added a category function to Google Messages that sorts your texts into several categories.
- The option to automatically delete your OTP texts after 24 hours has also been launched.
Google Messages is the default text messaging app on a wide variety of Android phones around the world and has many welcome features. Now Google is rolling out a major update to help you understand your texts better.
The search giant has announced (h / t: 9to5Google) that it introduces a new category feature that uses machine learning to sort messages by personal transactions, offers, OTPs, and standard personal messages (for conversations with saved contacts). Check out a screenshot below to see how this works.
“All of this is done securely on your device, so your conversations stay in the app and you can access your categorized messages offline,” said Google in a blog post announcing the feature.
This should make it much easier for you to immerse yourself in Google Messages and you can quickly find the texts you want. However, this is not the only new feature of the service.
The company announced that Google Messages will now automatically delete your OTP messages after 24 hours. It does this in the form of an optional prompt (as shown above) so you can ignore this feature if you want.
In any case, these features will be launched in India first and will require Android 8 Oreo or higher. There’s no word on a broader roll-out yet, but we expect it to hit other markets in the coming months.