Google's at it again, trying to make group chats less of a nightmare. The company's started testing @mentions in RCS group chats within Google Messages. Yep, it's about time someone made group chats less painful.
Let's face it, we've all been there - stuck in a group chat with 10 people, all trying to coordinate plans or discuss the latest meme. It's like trying to have a conversation at a loud restaurant, except instead of just drowning out the noise, you're also getting a million notifications. That's where @mentions come in - a way to specifically call out someone in a group chat, so they don't miss your message.
I think it's a no-brainer - if you're going to have group chats, you need a way to keep the conversation organized. And let's be real, it's not like Google's the first one to figure this out. Slack's been doing this for years, and even WhatsApp has a similar feature. So, why did it take Google so long to catch on?
Google's also rolling out some other features in its November 2025 update, including notification summaries on the Pixel and a power-saving mode for Maps. These ones are a bit more...meh. I mean, who doesn't love the idea of saving battery life, but Maps is already one of the most power-hungry apps on your phone. Is a power-saving mode really going to make that much of a difference? And don't even get me started on notification summaries. I mean, I guess it's nice to have all your notifications in one place, but isn't that just a fancy way of saying "頓 notification overload"?
But I digress. The @mentions feature is actually kind of a big deal. Remember when Samsung tried to get into the messaging game with ChatON? Yeah, that didn't exactly work out. But Google's got a leg up here - RCS is already used by tons of Android devices, so if they can get this feature right, it could actually make a difference. And who knows, maybe one day we'll be able to ditch those annoying group chat threads for good.
Of course, there's still a lot of work to be done. For one thing, @mentions only work in RCS group chats, which means if you're chatting with someone who doesn't have RCS enabled, the feature won't work. And even if it does work, there's no guarantee that the person you're mentioning will actually see the message. But hey, baby steps, right?
The real question is, can Google actually get people to use RCS in the first place? It's been around for years, but adoption has been slow. I mean, I've got a bunch of friends who still use regular old SMS because it just works. And let's be real, if Google wants to get serious about messaging, they need to get more than just a few die-hard Android fans on board.
But hey, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. If @mentions in RCS group chats can make my life even slightly easier, I'm all for it. Who knows, maybe one day we'll be able to have group chats that don't make us want to pull our hair out. A guy can dream, right?