Google Messages will soon fix the most annoying part of sending images and videos

According to code found in a new version of Google Messages, everyone's favorite enforced messaging app will soon contain an "edit before you send" button for images and videos.

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This doesn't mean Messages will soon be weighed down with a full editing suite. Instead, it'll pass those duties on to another app before returning to Messages.

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By  Rajesh Pandey

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Sending a video or an image is easier these days than it ever used to be. A couple of taps is all you need to replace a process that required printing out pictures and sticking them in envelopes. But as far as we've come, some things stay tantalizingly out of reach. That includes, bafflingly, the ability to apply quick edits to something before you send it in Google Messages.

That won't be the case for much longer, thankfully. Android Authority has uncovered evidence that Google Messages will soon contain an "Edit before you send" option before sending pictures and videos.

This option, rather than using the extremely simple touch-up tools Messages used to have, will send your content to your default editing app for your edits. Then, when it's done, it'll be tossed back to Messages to be sent on its way.

In theory, it's a seamless and very helpful option. Videos in particular often run long, and having the ability to quickly crop them before sending them on is a big improvement over the app-hopping approach before. Having to jump between apps, no matter how good the controls, is always a chore, and no-one enjoys having to manually do it.

If you don't have an editing app, then you'll get an "Editing isn't available" pop-up, before you're suggested to go and install one.

This is exactly the sort of feature that a Google app like Messages should be able to provide. Given Messages is developed by the same company that runs and updates the entire Android operating system, we should be seeing more of these helpful features rolling out. Being able to seamlessly jump between apps like this should be the strength of an app like Messages, but it's been woefully under-represented as an option until now.

Of course, reality doesn't always work as smoothly as this, and with a company as large as Google, disparate teams are likely to never cross paths with each other. Messages getting the ability to pass tasks to other apps hopefully means we start to see more of these helpful features hitting other apps.

As ever with features discovered this way, there's no word on when it will arrive on your phone, or any phone. At this stage, it's likely Google is testing with a select group of users, and it won't even be set in stone that this feature will ever see the light of day.

For what it's worth, this one likely will be. It's a simple enough idea that it's very likely to be pushed out sooner rather than later. Just don't hold your breath.