Google has introduced a new feature on Google Messages that allows users to personalise individual conversations with custom colours and wallpapers.
The new Chat Theme feature gives users more control over how their conversations appear, allowing them to change message bubble colours and add images as chat backgrounds.
Users can, for instance, select a favourite family photo, a picture of their pet or a holiday photo and use it as the wallpaper for a specific conversation.
Google Messages also provides a selection of preset wallpapers for users who do not want to use their own images. The available categories include Animals, Landscapes and Space, among others.
How Google Messages Chat Themes Work
Once a user selects a new background colour or one of Google’s preset wallpaper options, the message bubbles automatically adjust to complement the selected theme. Users can also manually change the colour palette if they prefer a different combination.
The customisation is applied to individual conversations, meaning users can choose different themes for different chats.
Importantly, the changes are private to the person who creates them. The recipient will not see the custom wallpaper or theme on their own device.
How to Change Your Google Messages Chat Theme
To customise a conversation, users need to:
- Open Google Messages and select the conversation they want to customise.
- Tap the recipient or group name at the top of the screen, or tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner.
- Select Chat theme.
- Choose a colour preset from the available palette.
- Under Wallpapers, select Choose a photo to use an image from the phone’s gallery or select one of the preset wallpapers.
- Tap Next to preview the new theme.
- If satisfied with the changes, tap Apply.
Users can return to the standard Google Messages appearance at any time by going back to the Chat theme menu and selecting Reset to default.
RCS Required
Google says the Chat Theme feature requires RCS to be enabled.
RCS, or Rich Communication Services, provides enhanced messaging features compared to traditional SMS, including high-quality media sharing, read receipts and typing indicators.
The new chat customisation feature is only visible to the user who created it, so changing the appearance of a conversation does not change how it looks for the person on the other end.
The feature gives Google Messages users another way to personalise their messaging experience without requiring third-party applications or launchers.
