Google Messages has released a new feature that may provide some relief from the blue bubble/green bubble debate for Android users First previewed last November, the custom bubble feature allows users to change the color and background of their RCS (Rich Communication Services) chats Blue is not the only option available, but all of Google's promotional photos show Android chat with bright blue bubbles

While this feature is not yet generally available, 9to5Google notes several stable user reports in recent days to indicate that it has moved beyond beta Critically, this feature is only for RCS chats and will not carry over to SMS Once it hits your device, you will be able to select it by tapping on the contact name (or group name) in the chat and selecting the "change color" option

You will then be presented with nine different options: default (material you dynamic color), blue, turquoise, purple, green, orange, fuchsia, pink, and monochrome according to Google's support documentation, with the selected person If you delete a chat or start a new chat with the same contact, the theme will be deferred to the default

The new theme will apply to what you see, but the person you are talking to will not see any changes unless they also have custom bubbles available If the other person is using custom bubbles, the changes will be synchronized throughout the conversation

Custom bubbles were announced as Google confirmed that the number of monthly active users of RCS-enabled Google Messages has exceeded 1 billion The company said that by allowing you to color-code your conversations, you can avoid "accidentally texting a weekend update intended for your friends into a family group chat"

Several other message upgrades were announced, including Photomoji, which uses AI to convert photos into animated reactions and screen effects

There are also animated emojis and reaction effects that turn standard thumbs up and smiley face emojis into little animations

Don't expect Google's rollout of the custom bubble feature to end the great Android/iOS bubble stalemate Apple has confirmed that it will adopt the RCS messaging standard on iOS this year, but the company is keeping Android devices firmly in the green zone

Apple told 9to5Google that while RCS brings many iMessage-style features (think read receipt and typing indicators) to texts between Android and iOS, iPhone-to-iPhone messages will continue to appear in blue, confirmed that messages from Android devices will be green Why? Apparently because Apple wants to make it clear that they believe that iPhone to iPhone, via iMessage, is the safest and best way for people to communicate