While it’s not live just yet, it appears that Google Messages is adding support for powerful parental controls that can stop a user from sending a message until they’re granted approval.
The Google Messages app, thanks to RCS, has pretty much become Android’s default messaging app, so it’s quite widely used. That’s why, for parents, it might come as good news that Messages appears to be adding support for parental controls.
As uncovered in Google Messages v20240416_00_RC01 and shared by PiunikaWeb, parental controls in Google Messages will make it possible for parents to block their child from sending messages until they’re approved. Unapproved conversations will have a message stating:
To send, ask your parent for approval.
NewGeekGuide can also confirm this message is present in the latest version of Messages, but is not live yet.
It’s not entirely clear how this will work. It’s assumed that this will probably work on a per-contact basis, and probably controlled by the parent from Google’s existing Family Link app. Apparently, this control will cover both SMS and RCS messages.
This is very likely in early stages of development, so we’ll have to wait for future versions to see how this gets built out.
More on Google Messages:
- Google Messages will let you record a 3-second ‘Selfie GIF’
- Messages moves RCS ‘provided by’ status in settings
- Google Messages Custom Bubble colors rolling out with RCS backgrounds
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