Google Messages now supports Ultra HDR image sharing via RCS chats: Report

Google has reportedly added support for Ultra HDR image format in RCS chats on Google Messages app on Android 14 devices. According to a report by Android Authority, Google has started rolling out support for sharing Ultra HDR images for Pixel 8 devices.

Ultra HDR image format is available on Android 14 and is standard JPEG format with HDR metadata. Non-HDR displays will continue to show standard image, while HDR panels will boost the colour and contrast of the image using the shared HDR metadata.

The report stated that there are no labels to indicate that an image sent or received is an Ultra HDR image, but the image gets the gain map applied when the user views it.

Google has not made any official announcement regarding the availability of the new feature, but it is expected to roll out for all devices running on the Android 14 operating system in the coming weeks.

Recently, Google announced that it is adding the ability to understand and analyse YouTube content to its AI chatbot Bard. In a post to Bard changelog last week, Google said that they are expanding the Bard YouTube Extension to understand some video content so that the user can have a richer conversation with the chatbot about it.

Bard extensions for all Google services and apps were announced in September. Although the chatbot did gain the ability to analyse YouTube videos in the initial update, it did not involve in-depth analysis of the video content.

With this update, Bard gets the ability to interpret video content on Google's streaming platform and respond to detailed queries about it.