Google Messages will soon use color to differentiate RCS and SMS, MMS users

What you need to know

• Google Messages is taking a page out of iMessage's book, using color to denote RCS and SMS/MMS users.
• Anyone using RCS chats, both on Android and iOS, will have their contact name colored in Material You pastels.
• The Google Messages app will also place a small RCS badge to the right of contact names.

While there are a number of visual cues to designate RCS chats from standard SMS/MMS messaging in the Google Messages conversation list, there aren't any before you create a new conversation. That could be changing in a future update, as Android Authority found in an APK teardown of the Google Messages app.

In the beta version of the Google Messages app, the site discovered small RCS badges beside the contact names of people who have enabled RCS when creating a new conversation. After tapping the Start chat button in Google Messages, the list of suggested contacts shows the RCS badge for RCS users and nothing for SMS/MMS users. The feature works for both RCS users on Android and iOS, which is notable.

The New conversation tab also changes the color of contact names that are using RCS. The color is changed from black to Material You pastels. These light shades are more clearly visible when using light mode compared to dark mode. This tweak bears a strong resemblance to how Apple handles messages, using blue to denote iMessage users and green for everyone else.

It's also neat that if a contact has two numbers, you can individually see whether one or both numbers support RCS. The badges and color codes for RCS could be helpful in certain situations when you can only send an RCS chat, like if mobile service is unavailable and you're relying on Wi-Fi.

Since this feature is working in the Google Messages app beta, it could come to the stable release soon. However, it's unclear when or if this feature will be officially released, as Google hasn't publicly announced it.