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Google Messages Rolls Out New Fullscreen Photo Viewer With Swipeable Browsing

After months of testing, the redesign is now widely visible to users on current builds.

Overview

  • The updated viewer opens fullscreen over a blurred backdrop and lets users swipe to adjacent photos and videos in a thread.
  • A top bar shows who sent the media and when, with quick download and delete buttons plus an overflow menu for Forward, Share, Star, and View details.
  • A bottom row adds emoji reactions including Photomoji, a shortcut to the full picker, a Remix entry point, and an inline comment counter for that media.
  • In conversation threads, photos sent at the same time are now grouped into a compact cluster after delivery to reduce clutter.
  • The feature is appearing for users on stable and beta channels, with some reports suggesting server-side enablement, while a small fullscreen camera corner change remains limited to beta.