Google Messages could soon let you watch YouTube right in the chat

By Brittany Vincent Published March 21, 2025

Google messages versus samsung messages app icons side by side on Galaxy Z Fold 5. — Tushar Mehta / Digital Trends

Google looks like it’s getting ready to bring back a fan-favorite feature in its Messages app: the YouTube miniplayer. After quietly pulling the plug on it last year, the company seems to be rethinking things, aiming for a smoother way to share and watch videos right inside your chats.

The YouTube miniplayer let you play videos without ever leaving Messages without any app-switching or interruptions. First introduced in 2022, it vanished in 2024 with zero fanfare. Instead of watching videos in-line chatters were bumped out to the YouTube app. The reaction to its removal last year was a mixed bag. Some users didn’t mind heading straight to YouTube, but plenty missed the convenience of staying in the chat.

Recommended Videos

Now, fresh clues from recent app teardowns by researcher AssembleDebug at Android Authority point to the feature making a potential comeback. Code spotted in the latest beta builds hints that Google could be working on a new and improved picture-in-picture player for YouTube links inside Messages. Specifically, Messages beta version 20250319 reveal strings of code that refer to YouTube in particular.

This lines up with YouTube’s own miniplayer redesign from late 2024, which added better resizing, repositioning, and multitasking. AssembleDebug was able to bring back the picture-in-picture player in Messages using an activity toggle, but videos did not play when tested. This does make it seem more likely, however, that the intention is to restore functionality.

Google’s move to bring the player back shows they’re listening to user feedback. There’s no official word on when the feature could roll out for everyone, and it’s still unclear if you’ll be able to turn it off if you’d rather open videos externally.

For millions of Android users who rely on Messages to juggle conversations, this is one of those small updates that could make things feel a bit more effortless, so it’s something to keep an eye on. With the recent switch to RCS messaging, it could be one of many changes to make the app sweeter, like the recent update that lets you unsend messages.

Topics

Brittany Vincent

Contributor

Brittany Vincent has covered gaming, anime, tech, and entertainment for over a decade. When she’s not writing, she’s…

Mobile

You can now send higher-quality photos in RCS Google Messages chats. Here’s how

Google Messages app on a Pixel 8 Pro, showing an RCS Chat message thread.

Google Messages is one of the most popular messaging platforms on the planet — so popular, in fact, that companies like Samsung and Verizon are doing away with their in-house messaging apps in favor of it. More than 1 billion users engage with Google Messages monthly, and a large part of the experience is RCS. We've been eagerly looking forward to the introduction of quality control when sending photos, a feature first spotted earlier this month.

Now, Google Messages has begun rolling out the "original quality" media-sharing feature, as noted by Android Authority. For now, it's only available in the beta, but that's a firm sign that all users will be receiving it shortly.

Mobile

Google Messages is going to make backing up and restoring texts so much easier

Google messages versus samsung messages app icons side by side on Galaxy Z Fold 5.

Backing up and restoring Google Messages on Android is managed through Google One in the device’s Settings app. However, you can’t perform this action directly from the Google Messages app. This may change soon.

According to 9to5Google, a Google Messages app beta (version 20241118_02_RC00) includes references to a backup and restore option directly in the app.Android Authority has been able to view images of the new feature and offer early insight into how it works.

Mobile

Sending photos via RCS is about to get better in Google Messages

Emoji reactions on Google Messages running on OnePlus 11.

Have you ever taken a jaw-dropping photo, only for it to lose a bit of something when you send it to friends? A lot of messaging services compress images to reduce bandwidth consumption. While useful in practice, it does make it harder to send images at full resolution — but that could soon be a thing of the past. Google Messages is apparently gaining the ability to send images without losing any quality at all.

In an APK teardown, the team at Android Authority discovered a feature hidden within the code that will let you choose what resolution you want to send a photo at. If this sounds a bit familiar, it's because WhatsApp has the same feature.