Google Messages adds group search to new conversations screen

A nice quality-of-life improvement to Google Messages for Android adds group chat search to the new conversation page.

Previously, the “To” field in Start Chat > ​​New Conversation only showed individual contacts.

There is now a “Group Chats” section that lets you search for these multi-contact conversations. It queries the group names and participants. The preview simply shows the last message sent, with a chevron taking you to the chat.

Group search on this page is currently being tested with the latest Google Message beta (build 20240820_00_RC00). It is not yet available on the stable channel.

Old vs new

The last update to this screen in October 2023 removed the “Top Contacts” section, while the conversation selection/sharing interface was updated a few weeks ago.

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