Google Messages now shows Screen Effects with emojis too

In February 2024, Google upgraded the Google Messages app for Android with Screen Effects, a feature that shows full-screen animations when you send messages with certain words or phrases. Well, the company is now upgrading the messaging app to show those animations when you send emojis as well.

According to Android Authority, in Google Messages, now when you send a message that has two or more emojis or text with two or more emojis, the app shows Screen Effects, as you can see in the video below. However, this happens only with certain phrases and emojis, and there’s no info on which ones trigger it.

Needless to say, full-screen animations for emojis work with only Rich Communication Service (RCS) messages and not SMS. Currently, there’s also no information on whether Google is rolling out this feature widely and in which regions.

While some people may find this feature fun, some may say that it is distracting, which is probably why Google pulled Screen Effects soon after rolling it out initially (last year). It will be interesting to see what Google does this time.

That being said, Screen Effects for emojis is one more reason for people to shift from Samsung Messages, which has once again started supporting RCS, to Google Messages.