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Google Messages is getting ready to steal one of iMessage’s most fun features
Playing games with friends within conversations may soon be a thing on Google Messages.
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Joe Maring / Android Authority
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TL;DR
- Google Messages seems to be working on a new games feature with titles including Chess, Pool, Basketball, Darts, and Crazy 8s.
- The feature could bring a GamePigeon-like experience to Android, although it’s unclear how the games will work.
Google Messages may be preparing to bring a fun new feature to Android: built-in games that you can play directly within a conversation, much like Apple’s GamePigeon experience in iMessage.
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We spotted references to the feature in the latest Google Messages build, version messages.android_20261002_00_RC00.phone.openbeta_dynamic, following a tip from Abhishek Yadav on X.
The strings point to a new “Games” section containing several titles, including Word Scramble, Chess, Cup Pong, Checkers, Pool, Basketball, Four in a Row, Crazy 8s, and Darts. “Midnight” appears to be the internal codename associated with the games feature, given that all the strings use the midnight_ prefix.
<string name="midnight_generic_title">Game</string><string name="midnight_item_2608fh7uq35lg_title">Word Scramble</string><string name="midnight_item_2vk12geg22fao_title">Chess</string><string name="midnight_item_2vopcb90gual8_title">Cup Pong</string><string name="midnight_item_3l3ki3p7ematg_title">Checkers</string><string name="midnight_item_3to83834i78n0_title">Pool</string><string name="midnight_item_5elsbfb9jued8_title">Basketball</string><string name="midnight_item_707ochkvam7l8_title">Four in a Row</string><string name="midnight_item_7dfca68huq5p0_title">Crazy 8s</string><string name="midnight_item_7vtnrtrku7v1o_title">Darts</string><string name="midnight_launcher_screen_title">Games</string>If Google eventually launches the feature as the above strings suggest, it could give Android users something similar to Apple’s GamePigeon, which lets iPhone users play simple multiplayer games with friends directly through iMessage.
Apple
Apple iMessage Game Pigeon
The games listed here certainly fit that use case. Titles such as Chess, Checkers, Four in a Row, Darts, and Cup Pong are naturally suited to quick, turn-based games between two people.
That said, it’s not clear from the strings alone how the games will actually work. They could be playable within a conversation, launched from a dedicated Games menu, or offered through another interface.
We also don’t know whether Google plans to make them multiplayer, although their inclusion in a messaging app would make that a pretty logical use case.
For now, Google hasn’t announced any plans for games inside Google Messages, and the presence of strings doesn’t guarantee that the feature will launch anytime soon. However, the number and specificity of the game titles suggest Google is at least actively working on something more substantial than a one-off experiment.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
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