Google Messages adds trash folder, mentions in group chats
Google Messages just got a couple of upgrades: you can now mention people in RCS group chats using @; they receive a notification even if the chat is muted.
Plus, there's a new Trash folder that lets you recover deleted conversations for up to 30 days.
Google officially announced both features on March 20 after beta testing; Trash had already been appearing in beta builds earlier in March, and wider rollout was not yet widespread on March 20.
How to restore deleted conversations
The Trash folder shows how many messages are inside and counts down the days until they're gone for good.
You can restore entire chats or just pick the ones you want, and any new messages from trashed threads pop back into your Inbox.
Want more control? You can tweak swipe gestures for easier access under Settings > Swipe actions.
Just note: deleting single messages from a chat won't send them to Trash—it only works for whole conversations.
Mentions for RCS group chats
These updates are rolling out gradually, so not everyone will see them right away, even if you've got the beta app.
These updates appear in Google Messages for Android and finally add a way to recover lost chats, which was missing before.
The update adds Mentions for RCS group chats and a Trash folder for recovering deleted conversations.