Google Messages Supports Text Formatting, But You Can’t Use It… Yet

Samsung phones come with Google Messages pre-installed, even though Samsung Messages is back and working well. But there are plenty of reasons to stick with the former. Google keeps adding new features and is actively developing more. It turns out Google Messages supports text formatting behind the scenes, but it’s not ready for use just yet.

Google Messages’ text formatting works only for the Gemini chatbot

Android Authority reports an interesting story: Google Messages supports text formatting, but only when chatting with Gemini. Telegram user derelict_arch spotted this feature in action during a conversation with Gemini inside Google Messages, where Gemini replied using bold text and formatted code, not by accident.

The responses were styled using Markdown, a lightweight syntax popular in apps like Slack, Reddit, and ChatGPT. Created by John Gruber and Aaron Swartz, Markdown lets Gemini wrap bold text in double asterisks (bold) and code in backticks (code).

This feature seems to live in the app’s backend and correctly renders formatted text, but only for messages from Gemini. Regular users cannot style their own messages with Markdown nor do they have formatting options. The publication also reminds that Google was working on text styling in 2023, but nothing ever launched publicly until now.

Why it is limited to Gemini remains unclear, but usability and compatibility likely play a role. Markdown is not exactly user-friendly for most users, and RCS does not support styled text consistently across all devices, which could cause formatting to break in cross-platform chats.

If I want to send a text styled like this: Hey, what’s up! Some words are italicized, and some are in codes

It would look like this to someone whose platform doesn’t support Markdown: **Hey, what’s up!** *Some words are italicized,* and `some are in codes`

Wouldn’t that be confusing? That might be why Google is hesitant to release it just yet. But that doesn’t say it won’t happen ever again.