Google Messages to bring back custom contact photos

Google Messages app is likely to allow you to customize contact photos again to make your messaging experience more personal. This change comes after the introduction of the Profile Discovery feature.

The Profile Discovery feature shows your name and Google account photo to people who add you using your phone number. However, this feature frustrated several users as it forced all contacts to show the same Google account photo, ignoring individual choices.

Fortunately, an APK teardown of the Google Messages app reveals that Google is actively working on a solution, thanks to Assemble Debug via Android Authority.

Google Messages version android_20241018_01_RC00 shows that users will soon be able to choose between a contact’s Google account photo and a picture saved on their device.

To switch between images, you’ll just need to tap on a contact’s profile picture and swipe left or right. You can also change the image by going into the Contacts app to make it easy to personalize your contacts.

This update is mainly useful for contacts who don’t have a Google account picture as it will allow you to add your own preferred image for them.

Aside from this, Google has also added new privacy settings to help users control who can see their profile details. Currently, the feature is under beta testing and will soon be available for all users.