Google Messages is now widely rolling out two significant new features: “Delete for Everyone” in RCS chats and snooze notifications. These enhancements, part of the June 2025 stable update, aim to give users greater control over message management and privacy.
Highlights
- “Delete for Everyone” Now Live: Users can now retract RCS messages from both devices within 15 minutes, similar to WhatsApp and iMessage. Works only when both parties use updated apps and have RCS enabled.
- Snooze Notifications Feature: Conversations can be muted for 1 hour, 8 hours, 24 hours, or indefinitely—without notifying others. Muted threads show a countdown and are visually greyed out.
- @Mentions Bypass Snoozing: Mentions in snoozed group chats can override mute settings, ensuring important alerts still come through.
- RCS Group Personalization: Users can now name group chats and assign custom icons, improving chat organization and visual recognition.
- Improved RCS Contact Indicators: Google now highlights which contacts have RCS enabled to better inform feature availability like message deletion.
- Gradual Rollout in Progress: All features are part of the stable June 2025 update and will reach all users with the latest Google Messages version.
Delete for Everyone
The “Delete for Everyone” feature allows users to retract messages from both their device and the recipient’s, provided the chat is RCS-enabled and both parties are using the latest version of the app. This mirrors similar functionality already offered by services like WhatsApp and iMessage.
Users will have a 15-minute window after sending a message to delete it. If either participant is using an outdated version of Google Messages or if RCS is not enabled, the deletion will only apply locally.
To help users identify when deletion is supported, Google now includes indicators showing which contacts are active on RCS.
Snooze Notifications: More Control, Less Disruption
The new snooze notifications feature enables users to temporarily mute alerts from specific conversations. By long-pressing a thread on the Messages home screen, users can choose to snooze alerts for 1 hour, 8 hours, 24 hours, or indefinitely.
Snoozed conversations will appear greyed out and display a timestamp showing how long they will remain muted. Importantly, other participants in the chat will not be notified when a conversation is snoozed.
An added option allows notifications to break through snoozing when the user is @mentioned—a practical balance for group messaging, ensuring that important mentions are still seen.
Additional Enhancements to RCS Group Chats
Google has also introduced new personalization tools for RCS group chats, allowing users to assign custom names and icons to group threads. This makes group conversations more visually distinct and easier to organize—especially useful for users managing multiple active chats.
Feature Availability and Compatibility
These updates are part of Google’s continued effort to make RCS messaging more competitive with other platforms by offering enhanced privacy, organization, and usability tools.
Both features are being rolled out gradually and will be available to all users with the latest version of the Google Messages app.
