For years, selecting text within a messaging app has been one of those small but persistent frustrations of mobile computing. You long-press on a word, drag the selection handles, and inevitably grab too much or too little — a stray emoji here, a timestamp there. Google, it appears, is finally doing something about it. A newly discovered feature hidden inside the latest version of Google Messages promises to give users far more granular control over text selection, potentially reshaping one of the most fundamental interactions people have with their smartphones dozens of times a day.
The feature, first spotted and reported by Android Authority, was uncovered through an APK teardown of Google Messages version 20250618. Rather than forcing users to copy entire message bubbles and then trim the text elsewhere, the new tool allows users to select specific portions of text within a single message — word by word, sentence by sentence — with a level of precision that has long been standard in desktop environments but conspicuously absent from most mobile messaging platforms.
A Long-Overdue Fix for a Universal Mobile Annoyance
The mechanics of the new feature are deceptively simple but represent a meaningful departure from how Google Messages currently handles text. Today, when a user long-presses on a message bubble in Google Messages, the app selects the entire message. The only option is to copy the whole thing. If you want just a phone number, an address, or a single sentence from a longer message, you have to paste the full text somewhere else — a notes app, a search bar — and then manually trim it down. It is an inelegant workflow that has persisted since the earliest days of smartphone messaging.
The new implementation, as detailed by Android Authority’s teardown, introduces draggable selection handles directly within the message bubble. Users can tap and hold on a specific word, then drag the blue handles to expand or contract their selection. A contextual toolbar appears above the selection offering standard options: copy, select all, and share. This mirrors the text selection behavior that Android users already experience in web browsers and document editors, but it has never been natively available within Google Messages for individual message bubbles.
Inside the APK: What the Code Reveals
APK teardowns — the practice of decompiling an app’s installation package to examine its code and hidden assets — have become one of the most reliable early indicators of features Google is developing but has not yet publicly announced. In this case, the feature was found within a flag that could be activated in the latest beta build of Google Messages. According to Android Authority, the feature appears to be fully functional when enabled, suggesting it is in the late stages of development and could roll out to users relatively soon.
It is worth noting that Google has not officially confirmed the feature or provided a timeline for its release. The company frequently tests features internally and through limited rollouts before making them broadly available, and not every feature discovered in an APK teardown ultimately ships to the public. However, the apparent completeness of this particular implementation — with working selection handles, a contextual menu, and smooth interaction — suggests it is more than a prototype.
How Google Messages Stacks Up Against Competitors
The addition of granular text selection would bring Google Messages closer to parity with some competing messaging platforms, though the picture is nuanced. Apple’s iMessage, for instance, has offered in-bubble text selection on iOS for some time, allowing users to pick specific words or passages from within a message. WhatsApp and Telegram, two of the world’s most popular messaging apps, have also implemented various degrees of text selection functionality, though the experience varies by platform and version.
For Google, the stakes are particularly high. Google Messages is the default SMS and RCS messaging app on most Android devices sold worldwide. It is the primary texting application for hundreds of millions of users who may never download a third-party alternative. Every improvement to its core functionality — no matter how incremental it may seem — has an outsized impact simply because of the app’s enormous installed base. Google has been aggressively investing in Google Messages over the past several years, pushing RCS (Rich Communication Services) as a modern replacement for SMS, adding end-to-end encryption, and integrating AI-powered features through its Gemini assistant.
The Broader Push to Modernize Android’s Default Messaging Experience
This text selection improvement does not exist in isolation. It is part of a sustained campaign by Google to make its Messages app feel less like a utilitarian SMS client and more like a full-featured modern messaging platform. In recent months, Google has rolled out a series of updates including emoji reactions to individual messages, the ability to edit sent messages over RCS, improved photo and video sharing quality, and deeper integration with Google’s AI tools. The company has also been vocal about pressuring Apple to adopt the RCS standard, a public campaign that has yielded results — Apple added RCS support to the iPhone starting with iOS 18 in late 2024.
The text selection feature fits neatly into this broader modernization effort. It is the kind of quality-of-life improvement that most users probably would not think to request but will immediately appreciate once it arrives. Messaging apps are among the most frequently used applications on any smartphone, and small friction points — like the inability to select a specific portion of a message — compound over thousands of interactions. Removing that friction, even in a seemingly minor way, can meaningfully improve the daily experience of using the app.
Why Small UX Improvements Matter More Than They Seem
User experience researchers have long understood that the perceived quality of software is often determined not by its headline features but by the smoothness of its most basic interactions. A 2023 study by the Baymard Institute found that minor usability issues — small annoyances that users encounter repeatedly — are among the strongest predictors of user dissatisfaction and app abandonment. Text selection in messaging apps is a textbook example: it is not a feature anyone would list on a spec sheet, but its absence (or poor implementation) creates a recurring moment of frustration that subtly degrades the overall experience.
Google appears to understand this. The company’s Material Design guidelines have increasingly emphasized what the design team calls “micro-interactions” — the small, often invisible details that make software feel responsive and intuitive. The new text selection feature in Google Messages, with its smooth handle dragging and contextual toolbar, is a clear expression of this philosophy. It does not add a new capability so much as it removes an old limitation, and in doing so, it makes the app feel more polished and capable.
What Comes Next for Google Messages Users
For now, the feature remains hidden behind a flag in the beta version of Google Messages and is not available to the general public. Users who are enrolled in the Google Messages beta program through the Google Play Store may be able to access it in the coming weeks, depending on how Google chooses to stage the rollout. Based on the pattern of previous feature launches, it is reasonable to expect a gradual rollout — first to beta users, then to a small percentage of stable-channel users, and eventually to the full user base — over a period of weeks or months.
The timing is notable. Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O, took place in May 2025, and the company used the event to showcase a wide range of AI-powered features across its product lineup. While the text selection improvement is not an AI feature per se, it reflects the same underlying commitment to refining the user experience of Google’s core applications. As Google continues to compete for messaging market share against iMessage, WhatsApp, and a host of regional players, these incremental improvements collectively add up to a more compelling product.
In the end, the ability to select a specific word or sentence within a message bubble may not generate headlines the way a new AI chatbot or a flashy redesign would. But for the hundreds of millions of people who use Google Messages every day, it could be one of the most practically useful updates the app has received in years. Sometimes, the most impactful changes are the ones that simply remove a small, persistent annoyance — and let users get on with their day.