It’s a subtle change, but it matters: now, image captions will display as expected when you send a photo along with text.

You may have noticed that sending images and text in Android Message sometimes produces results that are difficult to read in the context of the conversation. The reason: RCS technology which does not currently allow the simultaneous sending of text and image.

However, according to a developer’s tweet, an update arrives via the firm’s servers. When you send an image with text, the latter will now be treated as the caption of the image, and will therefore always be displayed at the bottom of it.

Google further refines the RCS user experience

This behavior is close to what Apple offers in iPhones – except that Apple continues to display this type of messages by separating the text from the image. It allows RCS technology to reinforce its cohesive side in terms of user experience.

Google Messages will properly support images with text in RCS chats

Currently the text and images both are sent separately. The new change will send both images and text (as caption), text will appear at the bottom of images. #Google #Android pic.twitter.com/oHCQuQfOk7

— AssembleDebug (@AssembleDebug) January 20, 2024

The precise arrival date of this change is currently unknown, although we can hope for a deployment within a few weeks. The information comes from the leaker AssembleDebug, who explains that he got the information from a conversation on Telegram – the source speaks of a flag that it would already be possible to activate to take advantage of the new feature (without specifying how to find it),

Google is also announcing, at the same time, the arrival of a slew of new features previously only available in beta. This includes Magic Compose, a feature that leverages Google’s local generative AI (Gemini nano) to help you write responses in conversations faster. But also Photomoji, in other words the possibility of transforming your photos into reactions, or even “Voice Moods”, which offers you colorful backgrounds dotted with relevant emojis when you send a recording of your voice.

Finally, Screen Effects will allow you to send messages that animate the entire screen. A bit like the same type of reactions on iPhone. These animations are also displayed automatically depending on the context of the messages. We imagine an automatic trigger following a message wishing you a happy birthday or happy holidays.

All these AI-powered features are based, as we told you, on local execution on the Pixel 8 and Galaxy S24. Google warns, however, that for older generations of smartphones, cloud processing may be necessary.

• Google is further improving the RCS messaging user experience by improving the way text appears with images in conversations in Google Messages.
• Until now sending text at the same time as an image was treated as two separate messages, which could introduce confusion into conversations.
• With this change, the text sent at the same time as an image will be treated as its caption, and will therefore be systematically displayed at the bottom of the image for greater clarity.