Google Messages Visual Redesign Adds Material 3 Expressive Plus Menu

Google Messages is getting a major visual overhaul as Google expands its Material 3 Expressive design to the app’s main chat screen and its core control menus. The update includes a redesigned Plus menu with pill shaped buttons, a cleaner chat thread layout with rounded corners, a solid background in place of the previous wallpaper, and a more cohesive app bar. The rollout began recently to the stable channel, with beta testers already seeing broader branding changes that include the Google wordmark replacing the familiar G logo in some views.

On the chat screen, the Plus menu now offers a compact grid of options for adding media and other content. The old colorful circular icons for Gallery, GIFs, Stickers and similar tools have been replaced with monochrome pill shaped buttons, arranged in a neater grid. The Plus button area itself is separated from the text field by a container that helps keep the typing space distinct from media search. Users have noticed that the search bar has been moved lower, reducing back to back fields and improving the flow of composing messages. The media picker, as part of the Expressive design, uses a top button group that adjusts as options...