Google Messages users in US should brace themselves for something unpleasant
Businesses and political campaigns can be pretty aggressive when it comes to bombarding users with unsolicited messages and cluttering inboxes. The short-lived feature let users unsubscribe from a sender from the conversation menu and the bottom of a conversation. After a user tapped on unsubscribe, Google sent the sender a “STOP” to notify them to stop sending messages and remove their name from their texting list.
As first spotted by Android Authority, Google announced a change on June 16 that impacts Google Messages users in the US and Spain.
Those who are still using a version older than 20250518.01 will continue to have the Unsubscribe option at inside the chat.
For users in Spain, the Unsubscribe option has been removed from the menu as well.
You will likely still be able to stop spam messages from some businesses by replying “STOP,” but considering not everyone is aware of this option, Google Messages users in the US and Spain should brace themselves for an untidy inbox. The fact that the feature was only pulled in two countries suggests businesses may have forced Google withdraw it.
There’s also a slim possibility that users complained about tapping on the button unintentionally and missing out on important updates from the business.
Google has only said that it has removed the feature to optimize the user experience, but that doesn’t entirely make sense, considering it hasn’t been disabled for all users.
Thus it’s like that Google has caved to businesses and opened the floodgates for spam messages once again.
