Google starts rolling out Categories in Google Messages

For now, it looks like Google is sorting the SMS messages into five categories which include Personal, Transactions, OTPs, Offers and More.

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Google Messages is one of the fundamental apps that is available on almost all Android smartphones. Over the years, Google has improved this service by adding support for a host of features including RCS and reaction emojis among others. Now, Google has started rolling out support for another major feature in the service -- Categories.

Android Police reports that Google has started rolling out support for Categories feature in Google Messages for SMS messages. Several Google Messages users have started sharing screenshots of how the company is making their message experience better by sorting them into various categories. For now, it looks like Google is sorting the SMS messages into five categories which include Personal, Transactions, OTPs, Offers and More.

There is also an All tab at the top alongside other categories wherein users can access all the messages that they have received or sent.

Users can turn this feature on or off using a toggle button in the app's settings.

@MishaalRahman Google message is showing categories but of no use right now.
Changing category didn't change the actual message list pic.twitter.com/7EF4SxyLNn

— Abdulla Niyaz عبداللہ نیاز (@_AbdNz) October 29, 2020

Additionally, the report states that while the categorisation of SMSs happens by default, users can manually change the category of a message. Users can also share the message with Google in order to improve the categorisation in future. For instance, if a message has been listed under Personal category, they can move it to More. However, this feature isn't available yet. A Twitter user says that while the option to change categories is available, it isn't active yet. It is possible that the feature is enabled in its entirety in the coming weeks.

Notably, the news comes just days after a separate report noted that the company is exploring a new way using which the one-time-passwords or the OTPs are deleted after 24 hours. The report further states that when the update is rolled out, Google will prompt users asking whether or not they want the app to delete the OTP message. That said, this feature is still under development and it will be some time before the company rolls out this feature to its users.