{
  "id": 3765037,
  "title": "Google Messages officially announces custom ‘Chat themes’ & backgrounds",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/27/google-messages-officially-announces-custom-chat-themes-backgrounds",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-08-27T15:45:41.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "9to5Google",
    "slug": "9to5google",
    "url": "https://9to5google.com/2026/08/27/google-messages-chat-themes-background/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "After weeks of beta testing, Google Messages announced custom chat themes and backgrounds for Android users today. The feature aims to personalize every conversation by allowing users to customize the colors and wallpaper for individual chats. Users can choose backgrounds from a curated gallery featuring categories like Animals, Landscapes, and Space, or upload their own images. The chat theme menu lets you adjust the bubble accent color and the chat wallpaper, with message bubbles automatically adjusting to complement the new scheme. It's worth noting that you can also manually tweak the color palette anytime using the top carousel. Importantly, chat themes are private to each user and only visible on their device, meaning they won't affect what the recipient sees. To set a chat theme, users can go to the theme menu, where they can \"Reset to default\" if they change their mind. As of now, the feature is still in beta or stable testing phases, so users will need to look for a red dot in the three-dot menu to access it. For more news, check out 9to5Google on YouTube.",
  "summary": "After beta testing in recent weeks, Google Messages today officially announced custom chat themes and backgrounds on Android.",
  "key_points": [
    "Google Messages introduces custom chat themes and backgrounds for Android users.",
    "Users can personalize chats with themed backgrounds from curated categories or their own images.",
    "Chat themes are private to each user and do not affect recipients' views."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Android Authority",
        "title": "Google Messages now lets you give every chat its own look",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/27/google-messages-now-lets-you-give-every-chat-its-own-look",
        "published": "2026-08-27T18:03:18.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}