Google Messages for Android is redesigning how link and YouTube previews look inside conversations.
The previous design showed the sent URL at the top with an image preview next. At the bottom, you’d get the page title, description, and domain.
This redesign hides the original link that you’re sent if there is nothing else in the message. First up is a taller cover image (in most cases) with less cropping. The bottom section has a more prominent background and larger title for improved readability. The domain is accompanied by the site favicon, but the useful page snippet has been removed.
Old vs. new
When a link is accompanied by text, the preview might be narrower to fit the length of the message.
Removing the link is a bit on the extreme side, though it does make for a cleaner thread. In getting rid of the article preview, Messages is unfortunately matching Google Discover.
If you rather see the full URL and don’t need previews, go to Messages settings > Automatic previews and turn off “Show all previews” or ”Show only web link previews.” The other option is long-pressing and copying to see the link.
Meanwhile, as of this current beta, tapping on YouTube links opens the video in Google Messages’ restored picture-in-picture player. There is no way to directly open inside the YouTube app. Disabling the PiP system preference just opens it fullscreen inside Google Messages using the web player. Hopefully, this is just a bug during the beta. Additionally, another issue I’m having is “Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot,” with no actual option to do that from just the player window.
Overall, this redesign looks a bit nicer but is somewhat less functional. There should be some tweaks before a wider rollout. We’re seeing the new link previews with the latest Google Messages beta (version 20251121_00_RC01) this week.
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