Google Messages just solved one of its biggest frustrations with a simple update

Google Messages is probably one of those apps that you use a lot without thinking about it. But Google certainly thinks a lot about it, as evidenced by its frequent updates for the core Android app.

We don't always highlight the changes made to Messages, because, well, they're not always particularly exciting. However, the latest beta build for Google Messages has added a very longed-for feature: the ability to copy only selective parts of a message.

An evolution in copy-pasting

Google Messages isn't an app that has many complaints attached to it, because it, on the whole, just works pretty well. However, one area where it's lagged behind for quite a long time has been in the area of copy-pasting.

For a long time now, you've not been able to select certain parts of a message to copy for a copy-paste. Instead, you can copy the entire message all at once, or nothing at all. While not always a problem, it's more than annoying in cases where you just need a little bit of information from a message, like a tracking code. In those cases, you'd often need to do a bit of editing to trim out the bits that you don't need.

Like I say, it's annoying. Not exactly enough to make you flip out, but enough to put an edge on a bad mood.

Thankfully, it looks like those days are finally coming to an end. Spotted on the latest Google Messages v20260306 beta, users can now long-press and drag in order to highlight specific parts of a message, rather than just copying an entire message all at once. This brings Messages into line with pretty much every other app that has text in it, since forever.

According to Android Authority, this beta release is rolling out to certain users at the moment, so if you're involved in the Messages beta (and who wouldn't be), expect to see this drop onto your device eventually.

For the rest of us who aren't so lucky? It'll drop for us eventually, though we wouldn't be waiting for us. In the meantime, you can still copy selected text using the Recent Apps screen as a workaround for the moment. Though this won't work for really long messages that won't fit on one screen, so it's definitely a workaround.