Google Messages has a major problem, and I’m sick of it

I’m tired of Google Messages on the web. Tired of constantly having to re-verify my credentials. Tired of not being able to send a voice message. Tired of a watered-down version of what has turned into quite a beautiful messaging application on Android phones. In a world where iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and so many other incredible options exist, it’s time for Google to expand its recently improved messaging efforts beyond the smartphone.

Google’s only native messaging app is built for mobile Android devices. The company has given a lot of love and attention to its mobile app over the past year, with a pretty steady stream of UI updates and new features that have turned the app into quite an enjoyable experience.

When using the Messages Android app, you can feel that it’s been built specifically for mobile. It feels native to the platform. Animations are smooth. Interactions are responsive. The app uses Google’s latest Material 3 Expressive design guidelines throughout its interface. Messages for mobile is very obviously a modern experience.

To be clear, the basics are the same on any device. You can send messages, react with emojis, attach photos, etc. — you know, what you’d expect from any messaging app. But just below those surface-level features, the entire experience begins to fall apart.

Voice messaging is the perfect example. On mobile, Google has implemented a gorgeous voice messaging interface. You can add emojis and colors to the voice message to emphasize the emotion of what you say, and it even includes optional noise cancellation. Google must know voice messaging is widely used, as the button to begin this type of message is one of the most prominent buttons in a chat, placed just above the keyboard to the right of the text box.

Contrast this pleasant design on Android with what you get on tablets and web — or should I say, what you don’t get. Voice messaging on these other two platforms simply doesn’t exist.

What about scheduling a message to be sent later, which is standard on every other modern messaging platform? Oh, that’s easy to find in the Android app. You can either long-press the send button to schedule the message, or you can tap the plus button on the left side of the text box to find that option. This feels even more basic than voice messaging, and yet, you won’t find this feature on the other two platforms.

The design of the web and tablet app might be the most egregious issue of all. Compared to the mobile Android app, this version of Google Messages looks like it wasn’t even made by the same company. Take away the Google logo from the top left of the window and perhaps the user account button from the top right, and Messages hardly looks like a modern Google product.

With the web app, you don’t see the little RCS chat bubble on your friend’s profile picture (to indicate it’s an RCS chat) like you do on phones. The text box itself looks entirely different, as well, and frankly, it’s not a great design. It looks dated. Additionally, you’ll find numerous sharp corners from previous design standards, while the Android app has rounded off those corners to modernize its look. You don’t even get your Material You theme on the other two platforms. Why not sync that from your Android device?

Holding out hope

Google can create cohesive experiences across different platforms. A decent example is Google Keep, which I also frequently use. My experience on my Pixel phone is functionally identical to what I find on my Pixel tablet and my MacBook. The web version lags a bit on the design side — Keep for Android has incorporated the latest Material 3 Expressive principals, while the web version has not — but at least the functionality is there. The design updates will likely follow, but at least I know I can accomplish what I need to accomplish on any of the devices. You’ll also see this feature parity in Gmail, Tasks, Chrome, Calendar, and many of Google’s other apps.

I believe Google will get this right. It’s more of a question of when. Messaging is a core app, not some random service that barely sees any use. We’ve watched Google step up its messaging game over the last few years, making really good headway in its fight to bring messaging on Android to a competitive level, right up there with iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and the other big players. In order to truly compete, though, Google needs to fix this parity issue. With billions in profit each year, this is not an issue of resources. This is an issue of priorities, and messaging, being one of the main uses of a smartphone, should definitely be near the top of the list.