What you need to know
- OnePlus has placed another of its system apps into the Play Store.
- This time, it's Messages, the default text messaging app.
- While you can't install it on other phones, you'll be able to get faster updates in the future if you're a OnePlus phone owner.
OnePlus continues its embrace of the Play Store to push faster updates. It's placed OnePlus Messages, the default messaging app found on OnePlus Phones, on Google's storefront. Now, users won't have to wait for full-fat OxygenOS updates to get a new feature added, they'll get them as soon as they're ready — and some of them are.
The folks over at XDA Developers note a few changes in this release from what currently ships on OnePlus phones. The company is adding a new text sorting feature that's popular on rival messaging apps such as Microsoft's aptly named SMS Organizer.
You can also sort personal messages away from business messages and OTPs, giving you at a glance context of importance and placing your personal messages closer to your thumb's reach. OnePlus will also let you one-tap copy OTPs from messages just like Google's Messages app does, and there's a new card format for messages with ticketing or bank transaction information.
The app isn't yet available for all, but OnePlus will probably roll it out in the next few weeks. In the same vein, OnePlus is said to be launching the OnePlus 8T pretty soon. Could it roll out the new Messages app at the same time? We'll have to wait and see.
