Google Messages Is Finally Fixing Its Awkward Landscape Layout

Contents

Summary

Google Messages is updating its landscape layout for a more balanced look.
PDF preview feature for RCS chats is in the works too, except for password-protected files.
The main action buttons in the beta now feature text labels for clearer navigation.

Some of you may have noticed that Google Messages looks a bit off when you flip your phone sideways. The chat screen and message list don’t exactly play nice, with one side hogging more space than the other. Folks have been talking about it for a while, and some might have even asked for a cleaner, more balanced look. Now, it sounds like the people behind the app are straightening things out and maybe even tossing in a few extra tweaks while they’re at it.

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Closeup of a phone showing RCS chats settings on its screen

Right now, in landscape mode, Google Messages’ chat window stretches wider than the message list, throwing things off balance. But Google seems to be working on an update to even things out and give both sides equal space.

After digging into the latest version of Google Messages (messages.android_20250427_01_RC00.phone.openbeta_dynamic), the folks over at Android Authority spotted some early UI changes. First up is a small but noticeable shift in how the chat screen and message list share space, which you can see in the screenshot below.

The current landscape layout looks a bit off-balance. While it doesn’t mess with how the app works, balancing those widths would make it as smooth as river stones.

PDF previews sneaking into RCS chats

The outlet also noticed another nifty change coming to how PDFs show up in RCS chats. At the moment, PDFs don’t get any kind of preview, unlike videos or links that show a little snippet. But some code hints at a new feature being built that’ll let users preview the first page of a PDF right in the chat. That said, password-protected PDFs presumably won’t get this preview treatment.

Some of our favorite messaging apps, like WhatsApp, already do this, showing a quick preview of PDFs so users can get the gist without opening the file.

There’s another tweak you can already catch in the beta: those main action buttons—like call, video, contact details, and search—now come with text labels. It’s a small change, but it makes things way clearer at a glance.