You'll Soon Be Able to Back Up All Your Conversations in Google Messages

Good news if you use Google Messages! The messaging app may soon introduce a feature for backing up and restoring conversations.

Whether it's due to phone damage, theft, accidental deletion, or a bug, losing your messages can have serious consequences. For example, you may have accidentally deleted an SMS containing an appointment date or banking information while clearing out your inbox.

Currently, there are ways to recover messages in Google Messages, but they aren't straightforward. You can regularly back up your data via Google One. If your last Google One backup includes the messages you want, you can restore your phone to factory settings to retrieve them. However, this is a risky process with several drawbacks. Another option is to use a third party app like SMS Backup and Restore, but it's outdated and rarely updated.

Thankfully, you will soon be able to back up your conversations and multimedia content directly and easily within Google Messages!

In the beta version 20241118_02_RC00 of the app on Android, the team at 9to5Google discovered lines of code suggesting that Google is working on an integrated backup and restore feature. One of the lines reads: "Backup is better with Messages. Restore your conversations, media, and more anytime in the app." Two additional lines highlight key features: "Your backup will be end-to-end encrypted and secured by your lock screen," and "Your conversations are automatically restored when you sign in."

This new option will be available under the app settings in a section called "Backup and Sync." Notably, while messages can be backed up over a cellular network, it seems users will have the option to sync multimedia content, like photos, videos, and voice notes, only when connected to Wi-Fi.

However, some devices may not support "end-to-end encrypted backups" due to the absence of a lock screen. Of course, this feature will be entirely optional, and users will be able to disable it in the app settings. If disabled, the app warns that "conversations will be permanently deleted from your Google account." If this feature does make it into the app, it should be incredibly useful!