Google Messages Shrinks Camera View to Show More Gallery Photos

Google Messages continues to improve the photo and video sharing experience. The app now gets a revamped camera and gallery interface for greater visibility of gallery contents. The company is rolling out the tweaks gradually in the stable channel, likely through a server-side update.

Google makes Gallery content more visible in Messages

According to a report from 9to5Google, Google Messages has started getting a new update with version 20251121_00_RC02. The update focuses on improving the unified camera and gallery view that shows up when users attach images in a chat. The goal is to show more gallery content on the screen.

As you can see in the images below (old vs new), Google has slightly reduced the height of the camera view in the messaging platform. It now sits inside a container with rounded corners at the top and bottom. While the camera view extends into the system status bar area, it does not take up too much space. Previously, the system bar remained separate from the camera view, resulting in a larger area while leaving less room for gallery images below.

Thanks to the reduced camera view size, you can now see more images from the gallery at once. It displays two full rows of photos in a 2×3 grid. Previously, we saw only about one and a half rows, limiting gallery visibility. That said, on some devices, you may also see a small portion of the third row depending on screen settings.

This tweak should come in handy if you often share screenshots, memes, or other images in chats. Note that you can still scroll through your gallery to access more photos. The update did not make any changes to the camera buttons. If you haven’t received the new camera and gallery interface in Google Messages yet, you can try force-stopping the app to trigger the server-side update.