Though many users of Google’s Messages app are still awaiting the rollout of the ‘conversation categories‘, and ‘reactions‘ features, the company boldly continues to add features to make its service competitive. Just the other day, I encountered a new pop up while texting a contact that allowed me to create a calendar event based on information in the conversation. It looks like this new ‘Schedule as you chat’ feature is appearing for other users as well, as Android Police provided the images below to confirm this.
If you mention a date to meet with someone in the contents of your message, the app should soon begin to show you a ‘Create event’ button which launches Google Calendar and pre-fills some of the information intelligently. Google began to implement this technology a few years back with the ‘What’s on my screen’ feature of Google Now. Shortly thereafter, it became Google Assistant and I think that most people had probably forgotten by that timed about the ability to dynamically select text on the screen and let Assistant suggest actions.
The ‘notes’ section of the created calendar event will state that ‘This event was created from a message’, letting you know that it was automated on your behalf. Apparently, there are other actions appearing in Messages as well, such as the ability to start a video call when you or your contact converse about ‘video calling’. Another action may show GIFs when specific key words are typed in the chat.
I really want to fall in love with Google Messages, and though I use it daily, I can’t say I’m getting the most out of it because RCS features need to be disabled for me to use it with Google Fi and to text without my phone being turned on. Many users echo the same frustrations, and we’ve yet to see the company budge on this. Regardless, when everything is finally sorted, Google Messages should be a lot more competitive. What other features would you like to see the app take on?
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