Question Question re: sharing via Google Messages

[dbsalk]

Apologies if this has been asked/answered previously. I tried to check the forum for this topic, but there are a LOT of threads about Google Messages.

When I go to share a picture or link to more than one person and I need to create a new contact group, the content of what I'm sharing gets lost.

Example:

I find an old photo in Google Photos.
I click the "share" icon and select Messages, which populates a list of active/recent conversations.
The people I want to share the photo to aren't listed, so I tap "New message" at the bottom. This pulls up a complete list of all of my contacts.
I select the first contact, and a new message loads with the photo attached.
I tap the name of the next contact I want added to the conversation, and then the "Next" button.
This brings me to the "Add group name" screen. Adding a group name is optional, and I generally don't. I click "Done" at the bottom.
Now I have a new message thread with the two contacts I want to send the photo to... but the previously attached photo is gone.

Is there a workaround for this? The only options I can think of are either a) setting up the contact group in advance or b) scrolling through my Google Photos (again) from the Messages app and finding the file I wanted to share.

Does this happen in other text message apps? Maybe I should switch.

 

[smvim]

Apparently you're attempting to send a text message with attached photo with the twist being you also want to include other recipients to that original text message.
Instead, try creating a complete (that original recipient including the others) group text massage first, then add in that attached photo to the group text message you just created.

 

[VidJunky]

I've experienced this as well with Google Messages. It can be frustrating for me since so many times I'll take a photo and in the moment want to share it to multiple people. If I open Google Photos to select the photo it usually ends up as a draft message in a thread for whoever the first person I choose in the group is. At which point I'm forced to go in through the link in the message to choose the photo to be shared. So far I haven't found a work around other than making the selection after creating the group.

It's a mild annoyance for me and not something I was concerned with solving but hearing you talk about it from a perspective of it being a problem there are some things I haven't tried.
I haven't tried doing the same steps from another app. I have a Samsung phone which offers me an alternative app called Gallery.

What device do you have?

Does your MFGR offer a Gallery or other photo app?

I don't know that it is the source but feel it is more likely to be Google Messages itself. But another thing I haven't tried is another app. Samsung's Messages is supposed to offer RCS but it doesn't seem to work as well for me as Google's Message app. There are other apps on the Play Store that offer RCS, if that is important to you, that you could try.

Again for me it is a minor annoyance so I haven't invested any time in solving this and just skip the selection process until after I have formed my group.

Let us know what you find and tell us what device you have and if you have any alternative gallery apps.

 

[dbsalk]

Agreed that it's a minor annoyance. I'd prefer to not have to search through my Photos app to find the photo I had already selected, but it's not the end of the world.

I'm using a Pixel 8 Pro. Sorry, I should have mentioned that at the outset.

 

[VidJunky]

I feel you, but for me, for the most part, the pics I'm sharing are the latest and greatest so they appear at the top of my Photo's gallery or they are ones that I've just imported or downloaded putting them at the top of some other folder.

With the Pixel being a device from Google it probably wants to default to Google apps leaving you open to trying other apps. I guess the thing to do would be to decide which app you care about more, Google Message or Google Photos and then trying to replace the other. If you choose to replace Photos it will still work in the background to backup your media even if it isn't the app used to view it, but again I feel like the key is going to be the messaging app but I've been wrong before.

If you decide to try something different post the results here so people following the thread and those who find it will know what if anything works and what doesn't work.