Send & receive text & voice messages in Google Messages

You can send and receive text messages with friends and contacts on Google Messages.

Important: Some of these steps only work on Android 6.0 and up. Learn how to check your Android version.

Start a conversation

1. Open Google Messages .
2. Tap Compose .
3. In "To," enter the names, phone numbers, or email addresses that you'd like to message. You can also pick from your top contacts or your whole contact list.

Send a message

1. Tap the message box.
2. Enter your message. If you'd like to save it as a draft and go back, tap Back .
3. When you’re done, tap Send . 

Tip: Learn how to share contacts in your messages.

Send a voice message

1. Tap the message box.
2. Tap the Microphone .
3. Record your voice message.
   • The voice message is automatically saved as a draft so you can listen to it before you send it.
   • The voice message isn't sent until you tap Send .
4. Tap Send .

Read voice message transcripts

Important: If you turn on Live Captions, transcription is available on web. Learn how to turn on Live Captions.

When you receive a voice message, you can choose to listen to it or to read a transcript of the voice message if Live Captions are turned off.

1. Open Google Messages .
2. Open the chat where you received the voice message.
3. At the top of the voice message recording, tap View transcript.

Forward a message

After you open a conversation, you can send it to a new contact at any time.

1. Open Google Messages .
2. Open a chat.
3. Tap and hold a message.
4. Tap More Forward.
5. Choose your contact.
6. Tap Send .

Read text messages

To read a message that you just got, swipe down from the top of your screen and tap New Message .

You can also open any conversation in Google Messages to read it again.

• Mark all messages as read: Tap More   Mark all as read.
• Mark a message as unread:
  1. In the conversation history, touch and hold the conversation you want to mark as unread.
  2. At the top, tap Mark as unread.
• Play a video or recording: Tap a conversation. Next to the video or recording, tap Play .
• Call someone: Tap a conversation. In the top-right, tap Call .
• Read archived messages: From your list of conversations, tap More   Archived. 

Tip: Learn how to change your notification settings.