Google Messages 'Trash' folder spotted in the wild after earlier leaks

Something Android users have been asking for is now starting to turn up in the wild. A “Trash” folder is appearing inside Google Messages for select users, and going by early reports from the community, it looks like a server-side rollout rather than a standard app update.

The first confirmed sighting came via a Reddit post in r/GoogleMessages, where user u/seeareeff shared a screenshot showing “Trash” sitting in the app’s side menu, right between “Archived” and “Spam & blocked.”

Some users in the thread quickly chimed in confirming they had it too, with most noting they were on the 20260227 beta build.

From what people are testing, deleting an entire conversation now gives you the choice to move it to Trash rather than permanently delete it. One user confirmed that full chats do end up in Trash and stay there for up to 30 days before being wiped for good. Deleting individual messages within a thread, though, does not appear to send anything to Trash. Only whole conversation deletes seem to trigger it.

This did not come out of thin air. Android Authority had already put the spotlight on the feature back in October 2025, when an APK teardown of a beta build turned up code strings referencing “trashed conversations” and a trash folder title. No UI was visible at the time, so development was clearly still in the early stages. Fast forward to now, and it is landing on real devices.

For what it’s worth, I’m on the open-beta channel with version 20260277_00_RC00 and the Trash folder is not showing up on my end just yet. A few other users on that thread also noted the same.

This indicates that the feature is rolling out with a server-side switch. If you’re in the same boat, it seems like it’s a waiting game for now.

Once this rolls out more broadly, Google Messages should finally match how Gmail handles deletions, giving users a 30-day window to recover anything deleted by accident. Google has not made any formal announcement yet, but the feature is clearly past the code-only stage.

Featured image credit: u/seeareeff / Reddit

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