Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

We’re checking out version messages.android_20260523_00_RC00.phone.openbeta_dynamic of the Messages app. Once Google flips the changes present in this release live, users will see the “Change colors” option in their chats’ overflow menu replaced by a new “Chat themes” entry:

The ability to set a custom color palette for each chat remains, but now it’s being joined by new wallpaper options. Google’s hooking us up with a bunch of categories packed with ready-to-use wallpapers — or you’re always welcome to choose a photo of your own.

If you don’t like the look you’ve ended up choosing, there’s a reset button to wipe the slate clean and go back to the default chat appearance. While this all seems to be working reasonably well, we do notice that text up top can get a little lost against a dark background, so maybe that’s something Google might think about tweaking further.

Here’s a preview of some of the wallpaper options Google will be offering Messages users for their chat themes:

Google could be turning this on for beta testers at any moment — if it hasn’t started already — so you may get your own chance to set some custom Messages chat themes very soon.

Especially with Samsung Messages just about to shut down for good, users who have appreciated Samsung’s support for custom backgrounds may finally feel like they can transition over to Google without losing everything they liked about their old app.

⚠️ 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.