One of the Gmail app's best features is making its way to Messages
Google Messages is picking up a handy new trick: as spotted by 9to5Google, you should soon be able to change what happens when you swipe conversations in your inbox. Currently, swiping left or right on a conversation archives it, but you'll soon be able to set the action to delete texts instead — or turn the feature off altogether.
A teardown by 9to5 revealed a section in the app's settings titled “Swipe actions.” Inside, there are options to change what swiping on a conversation in your inbox does. It looks like, by default, swiping left or right will still archive conversations, but you'll also be able to set a swipe in either direction to fully delete conversations. There'll also be an option to disable swipe actions in either direction.
Source: 9to5Google
Swiping should work similarly in Messages to how it does now in Gmail, although that app has more possible actions than just archive, delete, or nothing — including options to mark messages as read or snooze them.
While 9to5 was able to get the new setting to show up, it wasn't able to actually change what swipe actions in the app do — though given the feature is still in development, that's not entirely unusual. It's not clear when the ability to customize swipe actions will roll out to users, but considering it appears to be well into development, it shouldn't be too long now.
