Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- A bug in the new Google Messages beta, version v20250811, is causing users to see two or even three app icons in their app drawer.
- The bug affects only beta users. All icons launch the same app, so their functionality is the same.
- Google has since updated its messaging app to address the issue.
Update: August 15, 2025 (6:07 AM ET): It looks like the latest Google Messages beta (v20250813) has addressed this duplicate app icon issue. Some Reddit users report that the issue has been fixed after they updated to the new beta.
Still seeing this issue? A few users had success with rebooting their phones after installing the new app update. So this approach is worth a shot if you’re still seeing the second (or third) icon.
Original article: August 14, 2025 (6:37 AM ET): Google Messages is the default messaging app on Android flagships, and most users will stick to the stable version since that is what ships on their phone. If you’re an enthusiast, you may have opted to test the beta version of Google Messages to get access to newer features before their release. The risk with betas is that they also bring along bugs, and the latest Google Messages beta bug adds two app icons to your app drawer.
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With the latest beta version of Google Messages, namely v20250811, Google has added an android.intent.category.LAUNCHER intent filter in another activity. We don’t know if this was an intentional or unintentional addition, but the consequence of this change is that this activity has also started showing up in the app list. As a result, Messages beta users are now seeing two identical Messages app icons in their app drawer.
AssembleDebug / Android Authority
If you think two identical app icons are overkill, Reddit user bubbadan07 was unlucky enough to land with three identical Google Messages icons.
All three icons launch the Messages app, so there’s no difference in their functioning. The Reddit user originally got the two-icon bug after Google Messages updated itself. After uninstalling and reinstalling the app, the user ended up with three icons.
We followed the same steps, but could not replicate the three-icon bug even though we have the two-icon bug. Since the package name of the beta and stable versions of Google Messages is the same, it’s impossible that one of these icons belongs to the stable release so that we can rule that possibility out.
Since this is a bug in the Google Messages beta branch, you can hopefully expect it to be fixed by the next beta update. Hopefully, the bug gets resolved and doesn’t graduate into the stable branch.
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