Good news if you use Google Messages! The messaging app could soon include backup and restoration of conversations with all associated elements. Ideal for never losing valuable messages again.
If your phone is broken or stolen, mishandled or simply a bug, there can be serious consequences, since you lose all your messages. For example, you may have accidentally deleted a text message containing the date of an appointment or banking information while you were sorting through your inbox.
Of course, there is a trick to recovering them on Google Message. Just make regular Google One backups. If the date of the last Google One backup matches the messages you want to recover, then you can restore your phone to factory settings. Be careful, this is an extremely risky procedure, which has quite a few drawbacks. Another solution: use a third-party app, like SMS Backup and Restore – but the app is old and not often updated. Fortunately, you should soon be able to save your conversations and their multimedia content in a simplified way, directly in Google Messages!
Google Messages backup: an in-app option
In beta version 20241118_02_RC00 of the application on Android, our colleagues from 9to5google have discovered lines of code suggesting that Google is working on a backup and recovery solution integrated directly into the application. Indeed, they found a line indicating that “Backup is better with Messages. Restore your conversations, media, and more anytime in the app”. Two other lines also indicate that “your backup will be end-to-end encrypted and secured by your lock screen” and that “Your conversations are automatically restored when you log in”.
The new option will be available in the app settings, under “Backup & Sync.” Note that, if messages can be saved from the cellular network, it seems that it is possible to choose to synchronize multimedia content (photos, videos, voice notes, etc.) only when the smartphone is connected to Wi-Fi.
Please note, it appears that some devices are not “eligible for end-to-end encrypted backups”probably because of the lack of screen lock. Obviously, this function is completely optional, and it would be possible to deactivate it in the application settings. This then indicates that the conversations will be “permanently deleted from your Google account”. In any case, this function will be very practical, provided that it is actually integrated into the app!