To make the people to whom you send messages recognise you easily, you can share your Google Account profile (name and picture only). To keep your privacy:
- You can choose who can check your profile information.
- Your Gmail address isn't shared with anyone.
- You can use Google Messages without your Google Account.
How it works
- When you sign in to Google Messages with your Google Account, you can choose who can check your profile information.
- Your name and picture are only shared with Google Messages users (not iPhone users) after you have sent them a message.
- This doesn't make your profile publicly visible.
- Your phone number won't be visible in other Google apps. It's only used to verify and help other Google Messages users to connect with you.
- When a profile is shared for one of your existing contacts, you'll receive a new picture for them in Google Messages, but you'll retain the saved name if it's different.
Manage profile sharing and related features
Manage profile sharing- Open Google Messages
.
- At the top right, tap your profile picture.
- Select your profile
.
- Select one of these options:
- People who you message: Your profile is visible to people after you've sent them a message.
- Only your contacts: Your profile is visible to people after you've sent them a message, but only if they're in your contacts.
- No one: Your profile isn't made visible to anyone after you've sent a message.
.If you see a tilde (~) before someone's name, they're sharing their profile and they're not yet saved as a contact.
If you accidentally share your profile with a suspected spammer, block and report the conversation as spam. Your profile information is immediately removed from that conversation, which removes the spammer's access to your profile name and picture.
Learn how to block senders and report spam in Google Messages.
- Open Google Messages
- At the top right, tap your profile picture
the down arrow
.
the down arrow When you use Google Messages without an account, you may not have access to features like Magic Compose, device pairing or Gemini. Your profile isn't shared with anyone and you won't find other users' profiles.
To enable Google services and help people to reach you, your operator and Google periodically verify your device info and phone number. You can opt out at any time.
- Open your Google Settings. Based on the model of your phone:
- Open your phone's settings app, then select Google.
- Open a separate app called Google Settings.
- Select Privacy and security
- Choose whether to automatically verify phone numbers.
- Open your device's settings app.
- Tap Google
- At the top, select Personal info.
- Under 'Contact info', tap Phone number.
- Select your phone number.
- From here, you can:
- Add a phone number: Under 'Your phone numbers', select Add recovery phone.
- If you haven't already, add a recovery phone number.
- Change your phone number: Next to your number, tap Edit
- Delete your phone number: Next to your number, tap Delete
- Add a phone number: Under 'Your phone numbers', select Add recovery phone.
- Follow the on-screen instructions.
Tip: Changing the number in your Google Account will affect some Google services. Learn how to change the phone number on your account and how it's used.
You can choose to display your contact's profile picture in Google Messages. You can set a local contact picture or their shared profile picture.
- Open Google Messages
- Open a conversation with the contact.
- At the top of the conversation, tap the contact's name or profile picture.
- On top of the details page, tap the profile picture.
- To switch between the shared profile picture and your local contact photo, swipe left or right.