Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- The upcoming “Insights” feature in Google Messages will use Gemini to provide a concise, three-point summary of shared links.
- The feature will be able to use both the provided link information and external web searches, and it will notify the user if it retrieves data from outside sources.
- Dual-SIM users will soon get a clearer interface, with the SIM carrier name returning to the compose box.
When we previously spotted Google Messages’ upcoming Insights feature, there were barely any clues about its functionality. We presumed that Insights would provide a quick summary of the web page, and to that extent, our presumption is correct. We now have more details about the output you can expect when you press the Insights button, as well as other changes that Google is working on in the Messages app.
More details about the upcoming Insights feature
With Google Messages v20251103 beta, we’ve spotted these strings that reveal instructions for Gemini, guiding it on how to provide this summary:
- Hey, I have a topic I’d like your help analyzing. Can you look at the title, description, and the link below, and give me some quick, tailored insights in English?
- When you respond, please keep it concise and follow this specific structure: Start by telling me if the response is based just on the provided link or if you also pulled in information from a quick web search, e.g. “Based on the provided link and search results.”
- Provide three super-short bullet points (three single sentences, each under 150 characters) with key insights. Make them smart and relevant to the content category (e.g., offer a historical perspective for a news article, or a pairing suggestion for a recipe). Mention the topic in the first bullet point.
- Finish with a single concluding line that serves as a final step: either a safety warning about the link, a necessary disclaimer (like checking official sources for medical topics or government pages), or just a simple yes/no question to see if I want to dive deeper.”
As these new strings reveal, clicking the Insights button in Google Messages will pull in Gemini to provide a brief bullet-point summary of the content at the link URL. Gemini will also have room to search the web for more information, but it will notify the user if it does so. At the end, Gemini will offer the standard disclaimers around AI summaries and even offer to dive deeper into the topic.
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We’ve also managed to activate the new “Explore link topics with Gemini” settings toggle, which will be responsible for surfacing the Insights button:
Compose box changes for dual-SIM users
Dual-SIM users must be cautious when texting, as they may inadvertently send a message from their other phone number. Previously, Google Messages displayed a SIM icon in the Compose box to indicate which SIM was being used for RCS and SMS. However, Google switched to a cleaner interface, and with that, we’ve lost this handy indicator.
In the future, Google will display the name of your SIM directly in the Compose box, once again allowing you to identify which SIM you are using for that particular conversation.
The carrier name will not be visible for single-SIM users, which makes sense.
UX tweaks
The current chat details page shows several settings stubs in a big card. In the future, each of the settings stubs will reside in its own lineated card.
Current UX for chat details pageUpcoming UX for chat details page
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
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