Google Messages will soon be getting Markdown text support

After news that Apple will be adding RCS support to its Messages app, the Google Messages app on Android is also bringing some improvements and gaining new features. The latest round of leaks shows that Google Messages will not only get noise removal, but also support for markdown text.

For those unfamiliar, Markdown is a lightweight markup language commonly used for writing online content. It’s easy to learn and use, and can be a great way to add formatting to your texts without having to use special software.

Now as spotted AssembleDebug on the SPAndroid, it looks like this formatting feature will be coming to Google Messages soon. This means that Android users using the default Messaging app will soon be able to add bold, italic, strikethrough, and other formatting elements to their messages using simple punctuation marks.

One of the main benefits of using markdown formatting, aside from being a simple and easy way to make your texts more visually pleasing, is that it can help emphasize important points in your posts. This can be achieved by inserting your text into the markdown syntaxwhich can consist of double asterisks (**) to make your text bold, and single asterisks or underscores (_) to make it italic, among others.

Unfortunately, when testing AssembleDebug, not all markdown syntaxes worked. For example, lists, tables, and quotes are not supported, but basic elements like headings, bold, italics, and strikethrough seem to work. Plus, the feature has been proven to work for both SMS and RCS chat, so it’s good to know that no one will be left out.