Google Messages bolsters its audio features with a new, more convenient interface for its message recorder, noise reducer, and even voice moods. Enough to go well beyond the text!
Installed as standard on most Android smartphones, Google Messages continues to appeal to users, going so far as to establish itself as one of the most popular instant messengers. And for this, the application strives to offer more and more new functions and customization. Thus, it now includes dynamic reactions – a small animation is triggered when you react to a message using one of the ten most popular emojis – and allows you to send animated self-portraits in your messages with the Selfie GIF function. After the announcement in November 2023 of other expressive functions, Google Messages is widely rolling out a new audio recorder interface, with noise reduction, and is starting to test voice moods (Voice Moods) to expand the possibilities of interaction through voice messages, as reported 9to5google.
Google Messages: a new interface for the audio recorder
First of all, the audio recording interface is due for a little makeover. Until now, to record audio in Google Messages and send it in a chat, you had to press and hold the button with the microphone icon in the lower right corner of the chat screen. Now the button with the microphone is replaced by a button with a wave. The operation remains the same as before, except for a few new features.
You can now press the button once, which will bring up an interface saying “Tap to record your voice” with three buttons: “Cancel”, a microphone icon and “Attach”. By pressing the second button, the application will start recording audio, while the interface will change once again, showing a button to stop audio recording and a “Restart” button. Once the audio recording is finished, simply press the “Attach” button to attach the audio to the message.
The new interface makes long audio recording easier, as there is no longer a need to hold a button down for the entire recording, which can end up being unpleasant. Note that the new audio recorder has a noise cancellation function, which is activated by default. It is possible to deactivate it in the new panel. Google says it has also improved the “overall audio quality of voice messages by increasing bit rate and sample rate”.
Voice Moods: colorful vocal messages
Once audio recording is completed through the new interface, Google Messages will offer a choice of nine Voice Moods that add an animated emoji background to the voice message. We will have the choice between: Smiling face with hearts, Rolling on the ground laughing, Festive face, Face crying loudly, Slightly smiling face, Angry face, Face with open mouth, Face with rolling eyes and Crying face. It is possible to deactivate the animation, making the message static. A way to better express to your interlocutor what you feel.
For now, it appears that voice moods are only available in RCS conversations. For SMS/MMS, only the new interface of the recorder is accessible. It took a while for this update to be released to the general public. The audio recorder redesign is now available on all Android phones through the latest Google Messages update. As for Voice Moods, it is not yet widely available in beta, as only a handful of users can take advantage of it at the moment.