Google’s Stadia game streaming service is officially adding support for messaging, the service has announced. Messages can be sent to members of your party as well as other players more generally. Alongside it, the service has also announced support for sharing screenshots and video clips on the web via sending links, and it’s adding more information to Stadia profiles. Although these are all fairly basic features, they’re a standard part of most online gaming services, and it’s good to see Stadia finally implement them.
Stadia notes that its messaging feature also includes support for smart replies, saving users from typing out full messages using a gamepad. According to tweets posted by Stadia Product Manager Mario Anima, messaging is currently rolling out across every country where Stadia is available: Italy, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the US.
The feature should appear on the web app the next time you load it up. On the Android app, it should go live soon but may require a force stop.
First spotted by @ipnagogico on Twitter, it appears that messaging is rolling out now on Stadia. We can’t confirm the same on our own accounts, but this use shows a pop-up regarding the new feature in the web app.
Behind that pop-up, we can further see that messaging appears as a tab on the Stadia friend list. It’s still unclear exactly what the feature will look like on the Android and iOS apps, as well as if we’ll be able to use it on Chromecast, but this is certainly a step in the right direction!
