# Recent APK Discoveries Indicate Google Messages Introducing Enhanced Privacy Features for Profile Discovery
Recent APK analyses of the Google Messages application have unveiled promising new privacy enhancements aimed at improving the platform’s Profile discovery capabilities. These modifications will empower users with greater authority over the sharing of their personal details, including their name and profile picture. The anticipated updates are scheduled to be implemented shortly, offering a much-appreciated augmentation to user privacy on the widely-used messaging service.
## Key Information
– **Upcoming privacy features** are set to be integrated into the Google Messages app, granting users the ability to manage who can view their name and profile picture.
– Users will have the option to conceal their profile data from all users, display it solely to their contacts, or restrict visibility to individuals they communicate with directly.
– These advancements enhance the **Profile discovery feature**, initially launched by Google in November 2022.
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## The Advancement of Google Messages Profiles
In November 2022, Google Messages debuted the “Profiles” functionality, allowing users to establish a personal profile to be shared with others on the platform. However, this feature initially had limited privacy settings available. Now, following an APK disassembly of the latest **v20241010 beta version** of the app, new privacy-centric functionalities have been found that will enable users to manage who can see their profile data more effectively.
Per **Android Authority**, which executed the teardown, these fresh privacy settings will provide users with enhanced control over their profile visibility. Users will specifically have three options for sharing their profile information:
1. **People you message**: Only those you are actively communicating with will be able to view your name and profile picture.
2. **Your contacts**: Only individuals saved in your contact list will have access to your profile details.
3. **No one**: You can choose to obscure your name and profile picture from everyone, ensuring utmost privacy.
These new options signify a substantial enhancement over the existing configuration, which permits users to merely enable or disable the Profile discovery feature, lacking sufficient control over who can access their profile information.
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## Functionality of the New Privacy Settings
The new privacy configurations were discovered within the setup screen of the Google Messages app. Currently, users have the ability to determine how their name is presented—whether it appears in full, in abbreviated form, or just as initials. Nonetheless, the new features will allow users to take an additional step by regulating who can view their name and profile picture.
For instance, if you opt for the “People you message” setting, only those individuals with whom you are presently chatting will access your profile information. This is particularly beneficial for users who wish to maintain a degree of anonymity with those they do not frequently contact.
On the other hand, by selecting “Your contacts,” your profile will be visible exclusively to individuals saved in your contact list. This choice is perfect for users wishing to share their profile information with family and friends but not with acquaintances or strangers.
Lastly, choosing the “No one” option enables users to entirely conceal their profile information from all. In this scenario, the contact you’re messaging will only see the details they’ve manually entered, such as your phone number or any nickname they’ve assigned to you.
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## A Progression for Privacy on Google Messages
These newly introduced privacy options are a welcomed upgrade to Google Messages, which has been progressively enhancing its features throughout the past year. The platform has already launched **RCS (Rich Communication Services)**, which enhances messaging functionalities like read receipts, typing indicators, and high-resolution media sharing. Now, with the incorporation of these privacy controls, Google Messages is establishing itself as a more secure and user-oriented messaging platform.
It is important to note that although these privacy features are novel to Google Messages, they are commonplace in other messaging applications like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal. These platforms allow users to dictate who can see their profile picture, status updates, and other personal details. By adding comparable features, Google Messages is aligning itself more closely with its competitors regarding privacy and user authority.
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## Upcoming Updates and Potential Features
While the new privacy configurations represent a notable advancement, there are still some constraints in the present iteration of Google Messages. For example, users currently cannot set a custom profile picture directly within the app. Instead, it retrieves the profile picture from the user’s Google or Gmail account. This indicates that altering your profile picture in Google Messages necessitates changing it in your Google account settings.
However, given the swift pace of updates to Google Messages, it is plausible that future app versions will enable users to set a custom profile picture directly in the app. This would further enhance user control over their profile and how they wish to be perceived by others on the platform.
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## Availability of These Features
The new privacy options have already been observed in the latest beta version of Google Messages, and they seem to be nearing deployment.
