Adamya Sharma / Android Authority
TL;DR We spotted that Google is testing a less intrusive placement for the Remix button in Google Messages after user complaints.
The Remix option has been relocated from image overlays to menus or UI edges in several views.
There’s still no way to disable Remix, and it remains unclear when or if these changes will be rolled out.
Google Messages’ new Remix feature hasn’t exactly had the warmest reception. We first spotted the Nano Banana-powered image editing tool in a beta last month, and it has since rolled out more widely. While the idea of remixing photos directly inside chats is novel, many people were far less impressed by how Google chose to surface it.
The large Remix button, which sits directly on top of images in several parts of the app, has quickly drawn criticism online, with users complaining that it distracts from viewing photos, interferes with zoom gestures, and can’t be turned off. Judging by the reaction, Google may have realized that it pushed things a bit too far, and now it appears that the company is preparing to dial it back.
In the latest Google Messages beta (messages.android_20251212_00_RC01.phone.openbeta_dynamic), we successfully enabled a rejigged version of the UI that makes the Remix button noticeably less intrusive. Rather than floating over images by default, Google appears to be experimenting with moving Remix into more contextual locations across the app, depending on where you’re viewing or attaching a picture.
In the images above, you can see examples of how the Remix button currently appears, and you may agree that it’s rather prominent. Compare that with the pictures below of how the UI appears in the version of the beta we found.
When you long-press an image inside a chat, Remix now appears as an option in a new context menu, rather than being displayed directly below the reaction bar. You can see that in the first image above. In the attachment screen shown in image two, the Remix button has been shifted away from the image preview and placed to the left of the caption field, where it’s easier to ignore if you’re not interested.
Meanwhile, in the full media viewer, as shown in image three, Remix has also been pushed down toward the bottom-left corner of the screen. The styling here looks a bit inconsistent compared to the other views, and Google may still be tinkering with this part of the redesign.
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