{
  "id": 4880918,
  "title": "Google Messages finally has custom backgrounds and themes — here’s how to personalize your chats",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/01/google-messages-finally-has-custom-backgrounds-and-themes-heres-how",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-01T14:41:53.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "TechRadar",
    "slug": "techradar",
    "url": "https://www.techradar.com/phones/android/google-messages-finally-has-custom-backgrounds-and-themes-heres-how-to-personalize-your-chats"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Google Messages now allows users to personalize their chats with custom backgrounds and themes. This long-awaited feature, announced in a Google blog post, enables customization of bubble accent colors and wallpapers for each individual chat. Users can choose from a selection of themes categorized by themes like 'animals' and 'space', or upload their own images from the gallery. Additionally, message bubble colors can automatically adjust to match the selected wallpaper. To customize a chat, open Google Messages, select the chat, and either tap the person or group name or the three dots in the top right corner. From there, tap 'Chat theme' to enter the color palette and wallpaper options. After selecting a wallpaper and previewing it, apply the changes. Note that RCS must be enabled for these customization options, and the changes only affect the user's chat bubbles, not the recipients of the messages.",
  "summary": "You can now set custom wallpapers and themes in Google Messages, and it's easy to do so.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "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."
}