Google continues to add ways to react, respond, and communicate with its apps. We recently learned about the new “audio emojis” which will allow react with sound effects during phone calls (including laughing and even farting, for some reason), and now it’s the turn of the Messages app to add a new way to communicate with our contacts.
It’s about Selfie videos as GIFs. This new feature will allow you to record a short video using the mobile camera and send it as a GIF via the Google Messages app. And we already know how it works.
Here’s how to send video selfies in Google Messages
This feature was first discovered a few weeks ago, but until now we haven’t been able to see it working. Now Android Authority has published a video in which it shows how this new function works in the Messages application, which Google has named “Selfie GIFs“.
In the chat window, after tapping the cross (+) button next to the field to compose a message, a new option called Selfie GIF appears among the available options. By clicking on this button a new window opens to record the video with the camera, You can use both front camera and rear camera.
After pressing the red button we can make a recording with a maximum duration of 3 seconds. Finally, this video will be sent to the chat as a GIF.
Images: Android Authority.
The Selfie GIF will appear circled in the chat and play automatically. It should be noted that being a GIF, this there is no sound, unlike a traditional video. Curiously, a very similar function for sending this type of videos as GIFs arrived on Google Allo in 2017, the instant messaging application that Google presented in 2016 and which ceased to exist in 2019.
Both the front and rear cameras can be used to create a Selfie GIF, which can be up to 3 seconds long
This feature, according to Android Authority, is in the latest Google Messages beta (build 20240503_00_RC00), which could mean it’s about to launch and be available to all users. Knowing that Google I/O 2024 is just around the corner, it’s possible that this will be one of many new features that the company will show off at its annual developers conference.
Cover photo | Ivan Linares for Xataka
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