Fresh off the news that Apple will be adding RCS support to its Messages app, the Google Messages app on Android is also making some improvements and getting new features. The latest round of leaks show that that Google Messages will not only be getting noise cancellation, but also markdown text support.
For those not familiar, Markdown is a lightweight markup language that is commonly used for writing online content. It is easy to learn and use, and it can be a great way to add formatting to your texts without having to use any special software.
Now, as spotted by AssembleDebug on The SPAndroid, it appears that this formatting feature will be coming to Google Messages soon. This means that Android users using the default messaging app, will soon be able to add bold, italic, strikethrough, and other formatting elements to their messages by using simple punctuation marks.
Markdown text in Google Messages App | Source – TheSPAndroid
One of the key benefits of using markdown formatting, besides it being a simple and easy way to make your texts more visually pleasing, is that it can help to emphasize important points in your messages. This can be achieved by enclosing your text within the markdown syntax, which can be double asterisks (**) to make your text bold, and single asterisks or underscores (_) to italicize, among others.
Unfortunately, in AssembleDebug’s testing, not all markdown syntax worked. For example, lists, tables, and quotes are not supported, but the basic ones such as headings, bold, italics, and strikethrough appeared to work. Additionally, the feature was found to work for both SMS and RCS chat, so it’s good to know that no one will be left out.
This new feature is currently available in the beta version of Google Messages, but had to be enabled via flags, thus it is not yet available to the public. However, it is expected to be rolled out to all users soon as it exits beta.
