Group chats are a great way to stay in touch with your friends or family. While most messaging apps offer an extensive list of features tailored to enhance group chats, not every app is built the same. Take Google Messages, for example. While the app supports a variety of functions for group chats, it currently lacks the ability to mention people using the @ symbol.
Thankfully, we learned that this could change in March this year, while a follow-up report in June provided additional details on how it would function. It now looks like the day is near when the feature is officially rolled out to Google Messages, at least according to user reports on Reddit.
A couple of users in the Reddit thread also report seeing @ mentions going live in RCS group chats, specifically in version 20251103_00_RC00 beta of Google Messages. However, as 9to5Google notes, it may not be widely available just yet. Nevertheless, it’s safe to say that we’re closer than ever to seeing this basic group chat functionality appear on Google’s messaging app.
The long wait could finally be over
As the screenshot above illustrates, users will be greeted with an onscreen prompt while typing @ in an RCS group text chain, encouraging them to “Try @ to get their attention.” The one-sentence description below explains that the mentioned users will be notified “even if their notifications are muted.”
Detailing how names appear to people in the chat, the Reddit user reveals that mentions will leverage the contact names you’ve saved on your phone. Furthermore, you can remove parts of the contact’s name before mentioning them in the group chat (using just John instead of John Smith, for instance).
Meanwhile, unsaved contacts will be displayed in the chat with an @ followed by their phone number, while an iPhone user in the RCS group chat won’t be notified when they’re mentioned, according to the user. The feature was reportedly discovered on a Pixel 10 smartphone featuring the aforementioned beta version of the Messages app, possibly appearing via a server-side update.
To say that Google is late to the party would be an understatement, given that Apple’s Messages app has allowed users to mention contacts in group chats for some years now. Separately, cross-platform chat apps like Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram, and several others have also provided this essential functionality for a long time.
We’re not aware of the challenges Google encountered in developing RCS group chat mentions for its messaging app, but users will be glad to know the long wait is nearly over.
