Google Messages could get a dedicated spot to see all media from your chats

What you need to know

• Google is testing a slick swipe feature to breeze through pictures and videos in the Messages app.
• Right now, replying to each media kicks you back to the main chat, which gets annoying fast. This update fixes that with smooth left-right swiping.
• You’ll also get a quick-access bar to react or comment without breaking your flow.

Google appears to be cooking up a Messages update in beta that makes it way easier to reply to photos and videos, and it could be perfect for those meme-packed, media-heavy chats.

Spotted by Android Authority in the latest Messages beta, Google is apparently testing a swipe feature that lets you zip through all shared pictures and videos in a chat. It’s a simple move that could seriously level up scrolling through media in busy group chats.

At present, you can react or reply to photos and videos in Google Messages, but every time you do that with another media, it kicks you back to the main chat. This feels a bit annoying when you're trying to go through a bunch of media at once.

This new way of viewing media is about to address this shortcoming. Instead of leaving one photo and hunting through the chat for the next, you’ll just swipe left or right to flip through recent or older pictures. Plus, a handy bar at the bottom lets you drop comments or reactions without missing a beat.

Android Authority managed to get this feature up and running and even shared a demo to show how it works in real life.

Google Messages media replies swiping demo - YouTube

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Lost media? No more digging

While swiping through media is a bit more helpful, it won’t cut it for digging up older stuff. That’s why Google is adding a dedicated media overview you can find in the chat details. Tap the new “Images” section, and you’ll get a neat timeline of every photo and video shared, kind of like what you see in some of our favorite messaging apps, such as WhatsApp.

These tweaks might seem small to most, but if you’re always swapping pics and videos, they’ll make a big difference. And Google has been on this grind for a while—earlier this year, it was already testing threaded replies for media, so it’s clear Google wants to make Messages way better for handling visuals.

It’s still in the works, but it could drop for everyone in the next few months. Either way, it’s shaping up to be a solid upgrade.