Google Messages Preps Deleting Sent RCS Messages ‘for Everyone’
Back in June, the GSMA Association responsible for RCS finalized the latest standard with features like the ability to delete a sent message, and Google Messages is readying support.
About APK Insight: In this “APK Insight” post, we’ve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), we’re able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We’ll try to enable those that are closer to being finished, however, to show you how they’ll look in case that they do ship. With that in mind, read on.
Universal Profile 2.7 lets users “Edit, Recall and Delete message that they sent earlier for themselves and the message recipient.” At the moment, deleting a message only removes it from your device and not the recipient’s.
Beta version 20250131_02_RC00 of Google Messages features several strings related to that. Your options looks to be:
Delete for me Delete for everyone
This requires that all users have the latest version of Google Messages as “Messages may still be seen by others on older app versions.”
The deletion will be noted in the conversation to all parties:
You deleted a message Message deleted by its author Sender attempted to delete a message
Universal Profile 2.7 also makes official “Replies and Reactions (including Custom Reactions) to sent and received messages” instead of the messaging apps on Android and iOS manually converting reactions. You can also expect inline/threaded replies from Android (to iOS) users that include the message being referenced. There’s also undoing a message shortly after it was sent and native editing support across platforms.
It’s not clear when these capabilities will roll out.
Thanks to JEB Decompiler, from which some APK Insight teardowns benefit.
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