Google Messages will finally let you pin and star messages

Google has dozens upon dozens of apps and services and it's no surprise that some of these would duplicate each other. In fact, the company is notorious for having one too many messaging platforms and apps. In addition to the confusion and lack of long-term guarantees, it also means that Google often has to start over almost from scratch for every new feature. Take for example Google Messages which may finally get pinned and starred messages soon, years after other messaging platforms implemented those.

Even discounting good old SMS, people have been sending messages, either plain text or rich ones, almost non-stop for years. Our messaging apps are probably filled with messages, some of them dating back years in the past. Getting to the most important ones can be a bit tricky and organizational features like pinned and starred messages can help put a bit of order to the chaos.

Although not yet confirmed as final, XDA discovered pieces of text in the Google Messages APK that suggest such features are finally coming to the latest form of Google's messaging platform. One feature will let users pin up to three messages to the top of the app for quick access to important ones. XDA notes that the actual number can still change by the time Google rolls it out.

Starred messages, on the other hand, just mark certain messages as special. They won't rise to the top of the list but they might be easily found with Search filters. Either way, it will ease some of the pain involved in scrolling through dozens of messages.

The question now is when the features will finally land. Even if the strings are in the app already, there's no guarantee they're coming soon or at all. It would be a shame, though, if it doesn't come soon since almost all messaging apps worth their salt already has one or both of these features for years now.