An essential Google Messages group-chat feature finally looks set to launch soon -

The latest Google Messages beta hides a working version of group chat muting
The feature requires some effort to get working, but seems likely to be launching soon
There’s no word on a release date yet

Earlier this month we reported on rumors that suggested Google Messages would be getting a snooze feature so you can temporarily turn off group chat notifications, and now it looks even more likely that this feature is on the way.

That’s according to a new Android Authority teardown of the latest Google Messages build, in which the AA team actually managed to get the tool to work – suggesting it’s very close to release.

The snooze feature will see a new button added to the toolbar (which appears at the top of the screen when you long-press on a chat).

Choosing snooze will cause a second menu to appear, where you can choose to mute a group chain for one hour, eight hours, 24 hours, or ‘always’. The menu also reveals that “other members will not see that you snoozed this chat.”

(Image credit: Google)

You can also tweak your snooze options within user profiles, with this option giving you the ability to fine-tune notifications – such as muting everything except direct @ mentions in the chat.

A group chat essential

Muting can be an invaluable group chat function. Sometimes you just need to focus on something for a few hours and don’t want your phone to be bombarded with notifications. And we’ve all been in the family group chat which might be just a few very active relatives pinging messages back and forth – it would feel rude to leave, but only about 5% of the messages are relevant to you (and if a message is relevant the sender can always @ you).

Muting allows you to remove some distractions from your life without completely shutting yourself off socially.

As with all leaked features, there’s no guarantee that this will launch; however, given how in-depth the muting feature already appears to be, it seems likely that it’s not only on the way, but on the way soon.

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