Android plots free phone upgrade that transforms texts – and you’ll either love it or hate it

ANDROID owners have quietly received a free upgrade to their Google Messages app, and have discovered a new hidden feature.

Google Messages received quite the revamp last year, with a host of new features, including the ability to send Ultra HDR images.

AssembleDebug / TheSpAndroid

Android users say the feature was once a part of Google Allo, a retired instant messaging app that was live between 2016 and 2019[/caption]

According to AssembleDebug on TheSpAndroid, a recent version of Google Messages is hiding a selfie GIF feature.

When enabled, the feature allows users to take four-second videos with their front or back camera and send them as GIFs.

GIFs are animated images that can be sent back-and-forth in messaging apps and on social media.

Once the feature is enabled, it can reportedly be triggered by long-pressing the camera icon next to the text bar.

It’s not clear why Google hasn’t officially announced this feature to the public, or if it works on every version of Google Messages.

“This sounds like a fun idea honestly,” one onlooker wrote in a Reddit thread.

“Since it’s a GIF, it will probably work with non-Google Message users as well but might look like dog***t.”

Android users say the feature was once a part of Google Allo, a retired instant messaging app that was live between 2016 and 2019.

Now, there are suggestions that with all of the new additions to Google Messages, it may soon be a worthy competitor to Apple’s iMessage.

Another Reddit user wrote: “I missed Allo, it was great.

“If they had merged with then [Google] Messages it would have been a perfect iMessage competitor.”

Google Messages is also rumoured to be adding a noise cancelation button for calls and voicenotes, that would put the messenger on par with WhatsApp.