Communication apps like text messaging are an essential part of our daily lives. With the rise of smartphones, texting has become even more prevalent as our primary means of staying in touch with friends and family. While the default messaging apps on Android and iOS have continued to evolve with more features, one customization option that has been consistently missing is the ability to change the color of your messages.
The Importance of Customizing Your Messages
Why would you want to change the color of your messages in the first place? Here are some key reasons why having this option can be beneficial:
- Lets you add visual flair and personalization to conversations
- Allows color coding of messages by conversation or contact
- Can help differentiate your messages in group chats
- Makes your messages stand out with your favorite color
- Helps conversations be more visually engaging
The default blue and green message bubbles in Android have remained largely the same for years. While they get the job done, a splash of color can go a long way in making your messaging experience more fun and dynamic. The ability to customize conversations with different colors helps add personality and style that texting is otherwise lacking.
Android Limitations for Message Colors
Unfortunately, Android’s default Messages app has no built-in option to change the color of your messages. This limitation has disappointed many users who want more customization and flair when texting friends and family. The reasons for this limitation stem from a few technical challenges:
- Android Messages is designed for simplicity and adheres to Google’s core app principles
- Custom bubble colors aren’t part of the SMS/RCS protocol specifications
- Varying message colors can complicate theme/UI design for dark mode
- Potential branding issues from an excess of customization
Google likely avoids adding this feature to maintain a clean and consistent aesthetic in their messaging experience across Android. While subjective, they likely don’t view different message colors as a necessity. Their product philosophy favors minimal viable features over extensive customization options. However, the counterargument is that added customization like this would not detract from the core functionality and allows users to tailor Android to their preferences.
Workarounds to Change Message Colors
While you’re out of luck changing colors in the stock Android Messages app, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some workarounds. Here are a few methods you can use to inject some color into your Android conversations:
1. Use an alternate messaging app
There are many excellent third party messaging apps on Android that give you more options for tweaking the visuals of your conversations. Some popular options include:
- Pulse SMS: Lets you fully customize all aspects of messages, contacts, backgrounds, and more. Provides tailored experiences for both SMS and online messaging.
- Textra: Offers extensive theming options with unique bubble shapes, colors, and sizes for contacts.
- Google’s Messages: Replaces Android Messages as your default and has hidden options to enable message bubbles in different colors.
- Facebook Messenger: For conversations within the app, you can change thread colors and nicknames.
The key advantage with third party messaging apps is they provide more design customization features to make conversations reflect your style.
2. Use message stickers and emojis
If you want to add some color within the standard Android Messages app, stickers and emojis are a fun option. While you can’t change the actual message bubble colors, you can spice up conversations by adding:
- Colorful icon stickers
- Emojis in different hues
- Animated emoji stickers
The default Android keyboard includes a wide selection of emojis, flags, and symbols. You can install additional free or paid sticker packs from the Google Play Store for more variety. Stickers featuring your favorite movies, music artists, sports teams, and brands are all options. Get creative with stickers to make your messaging pop!
3. Use contact profile colors
Android Messages does allow you to set different colors for your contacts. While it won’t change the actual message bubbles, it will highlight the contact names in conversations with the chosen hues. To use this feature:
- Open the Contacts app
- Select a contact
- Tap the menu icon in the top right corner
- Choose Set Color and pick a color
Once set, the contact name will display in that color within message threads. This allows quick visual association of conversations based on contact profile colors. The colors even sync across multiple Android devices.
4. Use MMS messages instead of SMS
MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) messages support adding photos, videos, audio clips, GIFs, contact cards, location, and more. While SMS is limited to plain text, MMS provides a blank canvas for embedding multimedia objects into one message. For example, you could:
- Send a message with color photo backgrounds
- Include colorful images or stickers
- Set colored locations, like dropping a pin on a map
- Embed graphics and GIFs with transparent backgrounds
Getting creative with MMS allows you to inject visual variety, including color, without being able to change the message bubble itself. Of course, both parties need MMS enabled for these messages to transmit properly.
Will Android Messages Ever Support Custom Colors?
Given the longstanding lack of official support for message color customization in Android’s default messaging apps, it seems unlikely Google will add this capability directly any time soon. They have avoided feature creep in favor of keeping the app simple and lightweight.
However, Android Messages may eventually inherit some of the deeper customization options available in Google’s Messages app for web, RCS chat features, and othermessaging products. As they unify messaging across their suite of apps, concordant capabilities like user-defined bubble colors may emerge.
For now, third party messaging apps still reign supreme for controlling the colors of your messages on Android. And with workarounds like stickers, emojis, and MMS, you can add some extra flair to your conversations without venturing beyond the stock messaging application.
At the end of the day, while changing message colors on Android may seem like a minor issue, it represents a broader desire for users to be able to express themselves and tailor their devices to match their style. With smartphone messaging woven into the fabric of our daily communication, any way to enhance the experience and delight is an important consideration for Google and other app developers.
Conclusion
Android’s stock Messages app doesn’t offer custom message bubble colors, but various workarounds exist like third-party apps, stickers, and MMS. While unlikely soon, Google may eventually enable color options to align with their broader messaging suite. For most users, injecting color through stickers or alternative messaging apps gives enough customization to liven up daily conversations.