Most iPhone owners know that you can always change a bad text message, as long as you edit within 15 minutes. Now Android owners will have the same ability to edit messages sent to other Android fans via Google Messages and RCS. Starting today, Google is adding a number of new features to Android, including text message editing, some new Google Home features, and improvements for Wear OS.
Just like an iPhone with iMessage, Google Android phones will now let you edit a message that you sent via RCS in Google Messages within 15 minutes. RCS support depends not only on your phone, but also your wireless carrier needs to offer RCS as part of its text message technology. Messages sent from an Android phone to an iPhone do not use RCS, they use the older SMS or MMS technology.
In addition to the big improvement to RCS messaging, Google is also adding new ways to control your Google Home. There is now a Google Home Favorites widget that can control your favorite smart devices. You’ll be able to use the new widget if you are part of Google’s Android 15 Public Preview, and the feature should be coming to all Android phones eventually.
In addition to the new Google Home Widget, the latest Wear OS smartwatches will also have the ability to control Google Home more easily. Google is adding a Google Home Favorite tile to the Wear OS interface, as well as an option to add a Google Home Favorite complication to your favorite watch face.
These are fantastic additions if you rely on Google Home, as the software has not offered enough shortcuts and quick paths to control the lights, thermostat, and other smart devices in your home. With the new widget and new Wear OS options, Google Home should be much more user-friendly.
If you live in the US and Germany, Google is adding new ways to make secure payments using Google Wallet on Wear OS. If you live in those countries and have a Wear OS smartwatch, you’ll be able to use PayPal to make payments through Google Wallet with a tap of your wrist.
More features to help Google devices work together
Google is also expanding its digital car key capabilities. Digital car keys are coming to Mercedes cars on June 10, then Polestar around June 17, after Mini started offering digital keys through Android earlier this month both in the EU and US.
If you’re a fan of Emoji’s, Google is adding more combinations to the popular Emoji Kitchen feature. Just like on an iPhone, you can combine multiple emoji characters to make a scene, and Google says this will work with more sticker combinations now, including the headphones and disco ball. Party time, emoji people.
Behind the scenes, Google is adding capabilities to make it easier to share your mobile hotspot between devices on your Google account. If you have an Android tablet or a Chromebook, your phone will now be able to instantly share your hotspot with a single tap. This sort of feature is already available if you use an iPhone with other Apple gear, or a Samsung Galaxy phone with other Samsung devices. Now it will work across many more Android and Google-enabled products.
The best thing about these features is that they are available now. You can start editing messages that you sent to Android-carrying friends right away. Eventually, this could be added to Apple’s iMessage in some form.
Apple has claimed it would support RCS messaging, on which this new feature relies, but we haven’t seen that materialize. The company announced at the end of last year that RCS would be coming to the iPhone, so it’s only a matter of time before we see how that actually works.
It seems unlikely that Apple would let Android owners edit messages sent to an iMessage account, but we’ll have to see how cooperative Apple decides to be with Google’s new messaging advancements.