Google Messages tests redesigned ‘photo picker’

San Francisco: Google has begun testing a newly designed gallery-focused ‘photo picker’ in its Messages feature.The redesigned photo picker has already started to appear for some users, reports 9To5Google.

According to the report, the new picker launched from the left of the text field displays the most recent photo of the camera roll below a live camera and a shortcut to open the smartphone’s ‘Gallery’ next to it.

Users can see 22 more images by swiping left and also get a shortcut to quickly open the camera.

The pane gets bigger as the user scrolls down and can comfortably display 15 images at once. The user can find floating



action buttons (FABs) for the camera and folders in the bottom-right corner.

The update improves the usability of a regularly used component.

“Today’s large (and tall) screens can be effectively used by allowing users to quickly switch to a gallery view by swiping up,” the report said.

Meanwhile, the tech giant recently started testing end-to-end encryption, like WhatsApp or Telegram, to its Messages’ group chats.

The tech giant first announced its plan to provide end-to-end encryption to group chats over RCS (Rich Communication Services) in the Messages app earlier this year.