Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google Messages is finally fixing its long-standing compose box issue that limited users to just four lines of text.
- When tinkering with the latest beta version of the app, we were able to expand the size of the compose box to 12 lines.
- This long-awaited change could bring a major quality-of-life upgrade for Android users everywhere.
If you feel that writing a long text in Google Messages is like trying to draft an essay on a sticky note, you’re not alone. Google Messages has a tiny compose box, which has been a pain point for users for many years. Thankfully, Google finally seems to be doing something about it.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
In the latest beta version of Google Messages (specifically, version messages.android_20250402_00_RC00.phone.openbeta_dynamic — yeah, it sounds like a spaceship launch code), we’ve spotted a long-overdue change that’s going to make a big difference for anyone who types more than a sentence or two in their texts.
Currently, the compose box in Google Messages stubbornly shows only four lines of text, with each line barely holding a few words. It’s fine if you’re firing off a quick “k” or an emoji, but if you want to write longer messages, it turns into a scroll-fest and you’re forced to flip up and down to review what you’ve written. But that’s about to change.
With some tinkering in the aforementioned beta version of Google Messages, we were able to unlock a new limit of 12 lines in the compose box instead of just four. That means, soon, you’ll actually be able to see what you’re writing in Google Messages without constantly swiping up and down.
In the side-by-side comparisons posted above, the difference between the new and the old Google Messages compose box is instantly noticeable. The old version crams long messages into a tiny space, while the new one gives your words a lot more breathing room. It doesn’t take over the whole screen, but it adds enough height to the compose box to feel more natural and avoid constant scrolling.
That said, the feature isn’t official just yet. While our APK teardown tells us it may be in the pipeline, we’ll have to wait and see when Google turns on the switch.
