On mobile, you can mark a conversation as unread by long-pressing on a message. A pop-up menu will appear with a new “Mark as unread” button alongside the existing Add reaction, Copy text, and Forward to inbox options. You can also find this button under Conversation options, which you can access by tapping the contact’s name in the top-left corner. It appears below the “Start a new chat” option (see the attached images below). If you’re using Google Chat on the web, hovering over a message in a conversation will pull up the option to mark it as unread. It will mark the thread as unread starting from that message. You can also open the overflow menu for a conversation in the list to find the same option. Doing so will mark the whole conversation as unread. As Google notes, users will also be able to mark unread messages or conversations as read without even opening them. You can do so using the same menu and options. The company doesn’t tell whether this feature is available only on the standalone Google Chat apps or the integrated Gmail experience as well. But we presume both.
Google Chat picks up the “Mark as unread” feature
The ability to mark messages and conversations as unread is a must-have feature for any messaging app. As Google notes, it works as a soft reminder system and can help remind you to return to a message or a conversation at a later time. Many popular messaging and collaboration platforms, such as Slack, already offer such a feature. Google Chat is now picking it up as well. The “Mark as read/unread” feature on Google Chat will be available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers. There is no admin control or end-user setting for this feature. The rollout began this Monday for users on both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains. Google says it could take potentially longer than 15 days for the feature to be available to all eligible users. Meanwhile, you can click the button below to download the latest version of the Google Chat app for Android from the Play Store. DOWNLOAD GOOGLE CHAT
