Messages picked up a navigation drawer redesign and Google Photos integration at the start of this month, but it has yet to become widely available even on the beta channel. Users that have it noticed today that image upload capability has disappeared.
While we originally believed that the feature would be just for uploading videos to the cloud to send as a link, Google also extended the capability to still pictures.
In recent days, the “Google Photos” menu in Messages removed the “Always send images by link in text (SMS/MMS)” option. You can no longer select images and send them via the cloud.
It’s unclear if the removal is intentional or a bug. The former possibility is supported by how the Google Support page for this capability only references the ability to “send sharper videos.” That said, the company could have found low usage for this functionality in initial testing.
That said, there’s a need for this capability given how content sent over MMS is compressed, but it is something already addressed by switching to higher-resolution RCS. On the flip side, having a string of single-image albums in Google Photos can be quite annoying to manage.
More on Google Messages:
- [Update: Rolling out] Google Messages prepares setting to disable pinch to zoom text size [Gallery]
- Google Messages, with RCS in tow, is now Samsung’s default messaging app in the US
- Duo debuts Live Sharing, Messages getting inline YouTube previews on Galaxy S22
- Messages starts rolling out iMessage reactions, but emoji translations are not quite 1:1
Dylan Roussel contributed to this article
Author: Abner Li
Source: 9TO5Google