Google Messages will finally let you delete RCS chats for everyone (APK Teardown)
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google Messages is preparing to add new deletion capabilities for RCS chats.
- You will soon have an option to delete RCS chats for yourself or for everyone, including you and the recipient.
- Google Messages will seemingly notify recipients when a sender deletes or attempts to delete a message.
Google Messages will soon let you delete RCS chats for everyone. Code found in Google Messages app version 20250131_02_RC00 shows how Google plans on implementing these new features in accordance with RCS Universal Profile v2.7, which was announced in June 2024.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
Currently, deleting an RCS chat only removes it from your device, while the recipient can still see the message. With the upcoming update, you’ll be able to delete RCS chats for everyone, just like on WhatsApp.
We’ve found code evidence in Google Messages that clearly shows that users will soon see “Delete for everyone” and “Delete for me” options for removing sent RCS texts.
Interestingly, Google Messages appears to notify recipients when a sender deletes or attempts to delete a message, which could be a point of contention for users who prefer more discretion. Below is the text we found in the code with the help of our contributor Assemble Debug.
Code
Message deleted by its author
You deleted a message
Sender attempted to delete a message
Delete for everyone
Messages may still be seen by others on older app versions
Delete for meIt’s unclear when Google will roll out these deletion capabilities for RCS chats, but we bet it’ll happen soon now that the work is already done.
