Apple iMessage remains largely an iOS app. Because Apple knows that one of the things that convinces people to stay on iPhone is iMessage. But it looks like Google is ready to bring iMessage support to its own Messages app for Android, at least in one respect.
As spotted by 9to5Google, the new code in Google Messages refers to iMessage emojis: some emojis that appear natively in iMessage on iOS but cannot be displayed in SMS texts sent to Android devices will now appear as they should in the Google Messages app.
In screenshots posted by 9to5Google, you can even see a pop-up like “Translated from iPhone” below a message sent from iOS iMessage.
While the updated functionality was first spotted in a beta version of Google Messages, it now appears to be rolling out to at least some users worldwide. But we have not yet heard an official statement from Google about the update.
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