Google Messages has grown into a highly capable chat platform. Yet, despite its continuous evolution, the app still suffers from a few head-scratching limitations that rival messaging services solved a decade ago. One of the most glaring omissions involves how the app handles sharing information from past conversations. Fortunately, a deep dive into the latest software code indicates that Google is finally adding a way to forward multiple texts or images at the same time.
As the app stands today, users cannot forward multiple texts or images at the same time. If someone sends you three photos from a trip or a series of text addresses, you have to manually select and send them to another contact one by one. Selecting multiple media items at once simply brings up standard options to delete or download the files. It is an incredibly clunky workflow, but Google appears to be working behind the scenes to fix the bottleneck entirely.
Unlocking the hidden menu
A teardown of the latest Google Messages beta version by Android Authority (specifically build messages.android_20260618_05_RC02) reveals that developers are actively testing multi-select forwarding functionality. While the feature remains hidden from the general public, tweaking the beta’s underlying code successfully activates a brand-new sharing pipeline.
With the upgrade enabled, tapping and holding multiple items opens up a new three-dot overflow menu in the top-right corner of the screen. Selecting the new “Forward” option brings up a standard contact picker layout to choose your recipients. More importantly, Google added a handy preview bar at the bottom of the screen. This preview area lets you double-check exactly which text blocks and pictures you are about to send out before you hit the final broadcast button—a luxury missing even when sharing single items right now.
Closing the platform gap
The UI refresh proves that Google is now paying closer attention to small usability details. The refined visual feedback and removal of the mandatory one-by-one sharing loop will make the app instantly a more efficient messaging tool. The company also recently rolled out an option to set custom backgrounds in chats.
As this feature is tucked inside a dynamic beta build, it is still a work in progress. Google will likely spend time polishing the interface to ensure stability across different device types before pushing it out to the stable version of the application.
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