iMessage is such a great communications tool to use across your Apple devices. I love being to communicate my messages more clearly (and fun) with the slew of features and integrations within this app. It’s more than just text messaging these days, and it’s added new innovations to our everyday discussions. Since its release over a decade ago, billions of messages have been sent by iOS users alike.
Here are some tips and tricks to up your iMessaging game.
Memoji mania
While you may or may not love memoji, did you know you can add yours to your chats? In addition to your avatar, you can also be different animals like a mouse, octopus, cow, and giraffe. It’s a fun way to spice up your conversation with friends and family.
Memoji can be used as stickers in various poses. Also within iMessage, you can record an audio message, and using AI the memoji will mimic your facial expressions. Called animoji, some may find it creepy, but it is fun when you get used to it.
If you don’t already have a memoji created, you can make one right through iMessage.
iMessage Reactions
Sometimes a message simply doesn’t need an answer back but you’d like to acknowledge it anyway. That’s where reactions come in handy. By long-pressing on a message, you can love, thumbs up, thumbs down, laugh, emphasize, or question. Long-pressing also allows you to reply directly to a message. This is great if something got lost in the shuffle of a conversation. You can even copy a message, translate, and select certain messages all within this menu.
Third-party app integrations
Many different apps integrate within iMessage. Some are better than others, as apps like Reddit and Twitch only let you add stickers to your message instead of sharing content. However, apps like YouTube and Pinterest let you search and share content with others directly within iMessage. I also really like the OneDrive integration as I can easily share documents from the cloud to others.
Game Pigeon
Game Pigeon is my favorite feature in iMessage. It offers a variety of super fun games to play with other iOS users. 8 Ball, Darts, and Filler are popular ones that I like to play with friends. Game Pigeon also lets you make your own custom avatar that’s separate from your memoji.
Pay others securely and with ease
A common way to send and request money over iMessage is with Apple Pay. If I owe a friend money, I can use my extra Apple Cash money and send it over to them. It’s important to note that they need Apple Pay enabled in order to use it. Those who don’t use Apple Pay can pay and request money with Venmo instead.
What I hope comes to iMessage in iOS 16
The team at 9to5Mac has been chatting about what we’d like to see added to iOS 16. While there is no launch date in the near future, here are a few items we hope to see at its debut.
- Archived messages: The ability to archive messages has been available in What’s App and email for some time. It would be nice if we could move the conversation out of the way and access it later.
- Edited messages: Twitter is getting an edit button, so why can’t iMessage? Sometimes you make a mistake and you’d like to correct the error before the recipient notices.
- Reminders within messages: Wouldn’t it be great if you could simply tap on a thread and have your iPhone remind you about it later? If you could add it to your calendar or set a reminder to review the message in a certain time period? That would be incredible and is certainly a high item on our wish list.
How do you use iMessage?
As Apple users, iMessage has become a staple in day-to-day conversations for some time. With all these great features, it’s hard to choose other messaging apps when chatting with other iPhone users.
What are your favorite iMessage features that I haven’t listed? Let us know in the comments below.
Author: Allison McDaniel
Source: 9TO5Google
