9. Sending, Receiving, and Managing Texts and iMessages
In this chapter, you’ll explore the texting and messaging functionality your iPhone has to offer. Topics include the following:
Preparing the Messages app for messaging
You can use the Messages app to send messages (also known as texts), receive messages, and converse with others; you can also send and receive images, videos, audio, and links. You can maintain any number of conversations with other people at the same time, and your iPhone lets you know whenever you receive a new message via audible and visible notifications that you can configure. In addition to text conversations with other people, many organizations use text messaging to send important updates, such as airlines communicating flight status changes. You might find messaging to be one of the most used functions of your iPhone.
Getting Started
Texting, also called messaging, is an especially great way to communicate with others when you have something quick you want to say, such as an update on your arrival time. It’s much easier to send a quick text, “I’ll be there in 10 minutes,” than it is to make a phone call or send an email. Texting/messaging is designed for relatively short messages. It is also a great way to share photos and videos quickly and easily. And if you communicate with younger people, you might find they tend to respond quite well since texting is a primary form of communication for them.
There are two types of messages that you can send with and receive on your iPhone using the Messages app.
The Messages app can send and receive text messages via your cell network based on telephone numbers. Using this option, you can send text messages to and receive messages from anyone who has a cell phone capable of text messaging.
You can also use the iMessage function within the Messages app to send and receive messages via an email account, to and from other iOS devices (using iOS 5 or newer), or Macs (running OS X Lion or newer). This is especially useful when your cell phone account has a limit on the number of texts you can send via your cell account; when you use iMessage for texting, there is no limit on the amount of data you can send when you are connected to the Internet using a Wi-Fi network and so you incur no additional costs for your messages. This is also really useful because you can send messages to, and receive messages from, iPod touch, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac users. The limitations to iMessage are that it only works on those supported devices, and the people with whom you are messaging have to set up iMessage on their device (which isn’t difficult).
You don’t need to be overly concerned about which type is which because the Messages app makes it clear which type a message is by color and text. It uses iMessage when available and automatically uses cellular texting when it isn’t possible to use iMessage.
You can configure iMessage on multiple devices, such as an iPhone and an iPad. This means you have the same text messages on each device. So, you can start a conversation on your iPhone, and then continue it on an iPad at a later time.
Preparing the Messages App for Messaging
Like most of the apps described in this book, there are settings for the Messages app you can configure to choose how the app works for you. For example, you can configure iMessage so you can communicate via email addresses, configure how standard text messages are managed, and so on. You can also choose to block messages from specific people.
Setting Your Text and iMessage Preferences
Perform the following steps to set up Messages on your iPhone:
Move to the Settings app and tap Messages.
Set the iMessage switch to on (green).
Set the Show Contact Photos switch to on (green) if you want images associated with your contacts to appear in messages.
Slide the Send Read Receipts switch to on (green) to notify others when you read their messages. Be aware that receipts apply only to iMessages (not texts sent over a cellular network).
Slide the Send as SMS switch to on (green) to send texts via your cellular network when iMessage is unavailable. If your cellular account has a limit on the number of texts you can send, you might want to leave this set to off (white) so you use only iMessage when you are texting. If your account has unlimited texting, you should set this to on (green).
Tap Send & Receive.
Tap Use your Apple ID for iMessage. You sign into your Apple ID. At the top of the iMessage screen, you see your Apple ID. You also see the phone number of your iPhone and the email addresses associated with your Apple ID that can be used in the Messages app.
To prevent an email address from being available to others to send you messages, in the YOU CAN BE REACHED BY IMESSAGE AT section, tap it so it doesn’t have a check mark.
To enable an address so it can be used for messages, tap it so it does have a check mark.
Tap the phone number or email address you want to use by default when you start a new text conversation in the START NEW CONVERSATIONS FROM section. Because there are no data or media limitations with iMessages, you usually want to choose an email address as the default way to start a conversation.
Tap Messages.
Apple ID?
These steps assume you are already signed into an Apple ID on your iPhone (see Chapter 3, “Setting Up and Using an Apple ID, iCloud, and Other Online Accounts” for help with an Apple ID). If you haven’t, when you perform step 7, you’re prompted to provide an Apple ID and password to sign into that Apple ID. If you are already signed into an Apple ID for Messages and see your Apple ID at the top of the iMessage screen, you can skip step 7. If you want to change the Apple ID currently being used for iMessage, tap Send & Receive, tap the Apple ID shown at the top of the iMessage screen, and then tap Sign Out. You can then sign in to a different Apple ID for Messages.
Tap Text Message Forwarding; if you don’t see this option, your cell phone carrier doesn’t support it and you can skip to step 14.
Set the switch to on (green) for devices on which you want to be able to receive and send text messages using your iPhone’s cell phone function (this doesn’t affect messages sent via iMessages because they go to all the devices on which your Apple ID is being used for iMessages automatically).
Code Required?
In some cases, when you perform step 13, you are prompted to enter a code for that device. This code appears on the device you are enabling; for example, if you turned the switch for a Mac on, the code appears on that Mac. You need to enter that code at the prompt on your iPhone and tap Allow to finish the process.
Tap Back.
Swipe up the screen to see the SMS/MMS section.
Set the MMS Messaging switch to off (white) if you don’t want to allow photos and videos to be included in messages sent via your phone’s cellular network. You might want to disable this option if your provider charges more for these types of messages—or if you simply don’t want to deal with anything but text in your messages.
Set the Group Messaging switch to on (green) to keep messages you send to a group of people organized by the group. When enabled, replies you receive to messages you send to groups (meaning more than one person on a single message) are shown on a group message screen where each reply from anyone in the group is included on the same screen. If this is off (white), when someone replies to a message sent to a group, the message is separated out as if the original message was just to that person. (The steps in this chapter assume Group Messaging is on.)
Set the Show Subject Field switch to on (green) to add a subject field to your messages. This divides text messages into two sections; the upper section is for a subject, and you type your message in the lower section. This is not commonly used in text messages, and the steps in this chapter assume this setting is off.
Set the Character Count switch to on (green) to display the number of characters you’ve written compared to the number allowed (such as 59/160). When it is off, you don’t see a character count for messages you send. Technically, text messages you send via the cellular network are limited to 160 characters, so showing the character count helps you see where you are relative to this limit (iMessages don’t have a limit). I don’t use this setting so you won’t see it in the figures in this chapter, but if character count is important to you, you should enable this.
Use the Blocked option to block people from texting you (see the next task).
Tap Keep Messages.
Tap the length of time for which you want to keep messages.
If you tapped something other than Forever, tap Delete. The messages on your iPhone older than the length of time you selected in step 22 are deleted.
Tap Messages.
If you want messages from people or organizations not in the Contacts app to be put on a separate list, set the Filter Unknown Senders switch to on (green). When this switch is on, you see a separate tab for messages from people you might not know; notifications for those messages are also disabled. This can be useful if you receive a lot of messages from people you don’t know and don’t want to be annoyed by notifications about those messages. (This feature is explained in the section “Working with Messages from People You Might Not Know” later in this chapter.)
Tap Expire.
Choose the time after which you want audio messages to expire and be deleted from your iPhone. The options you see depend on your cell phone provider. For example, if you tap After 2 Minutes, audio messages are automatically deleted two minutes after you listen to them. This is good because audio messages require a lot of storage space, and deleting them keeps that space available for other things. Other choices might be After 1 Year or Never (if you don’t want audio messages to ever be deleted).
Tap Messages.
To be able to listen to audio messages by lifting the phone to your ear, set the Raise to Listen switch to on (green). If you set this to off (white), you need to manually start audio messages.
To have the images in your messages sent at a lower quality level, set the Low Quality Image Mode switch to on (green). This can be a useful setting if you or the other recipients of your messages have limited data plans because lower quality images require less data to transmit and receive. If you tend to use all or most of your data allowance each month and send a lot of images, you might want to enable this setting and see if that reduces your data use.
Audio Messages
There are two types of audio messages you can send via the Messages app. Instant audio messages are included as part of the message itself. Audio, such as voice memos, can also be attached to messages. The Expire settings only affect instant audio messages. Audio that is attached to messages is not deleted automatically.
Blocking People from Messaging or Texting You
If you want to block someone before they send messages to you, configure that person’s contact information so you can easily block his messages. Refer to Chapter 6, “Managing Contacts,” for the steps to create contacts. (You can also block someone after you have received messages you don’t want, which doesn’t require that there be a contact first; those steps are provided later in this chapter.) Use the following steps to block a contact from sending messages to you:
Move to the Messages screen in the Settings app.
Swipe up the Messages screen.
Tap Blocked.
If necessary, swipe up the screen.
Tap Add New.
Use the Contacts app to find and tap the contact you want to block. (Note that contacts without email addresses or phone numbers that don’t have the potential to send messages to you are grayed out and cannot be selected.) You return to the Blocked screen and see the contact on your Blocked list. Any messages, phone calls, and FaceTime requests from the contact, as long as they come from an email address or phone number included in his contact information, won’t be sent to your iPhone.
Sending Messages
You can use the Messages app to send messages to people using a cell phone number (as long as the device receiving it can receive text messages) or an email address that has been registered for iMessage. If the recipient has both a cell number and iMessage-enabled email address, the Messages app assumes you want to use iMessage for the message.
When you send a message to more than one person and at least one of those people can use only the cellular network, all the messages are sent via the cellular network and not as an iMessage.
More on Mixed Recipients
If one of a message’s recipients has an email address that isn’t iMessage-enabled (and doesn’t have a phone number), the Messages app attempts to send the message to that recipient as an email message. The recipient receives the email message in an email app on his phone or computer instead of through the Messages app.
Whether messages are sent via a cellular network or iMessage isn’t terribly important, but there are some differences. If your cellular account has a limit on the number of texts you can send, you should use iMessage when you can because those messages won’t count against your limit. Also, when you use iMessage, you don’t have to worry about a limit on the number of characters in a message. When you send a message via a cellular network, your messages might be limited to 160 characters.
When you send messages to or receive messages from a person or a group of people, you see those messages in a conversation. Every message sent among the same people is added to that conversation. When you send a message to a person or group you haven’t messaged before, a new conversation is created. If you send a message to a person or group you have messaged before, the message is added to the existing conversation.
Messages on an iPhone running iOS 10 or later can include lots of different elements, including effects, Digital Touches, content from apps, and more. When you include these items in your messages sent to other people using devices running iOS 10 or later, they’ll be received as you intended. If they are using devices that aren’t running iOS 10 or later or Macs running macOS Sierra or later, messages with these enhancements might or might not be what you intended. For example, if the recipient is using an older version of the iOS, a Digital Touch message comes in as a static image. If the recipient is using a device not running the iOS at all, such as an Android device, it can be hard to predict what will happen to messages if you enhance them. So, keep the recipients of your messages in mind and adjust the content you send to them accordingly.
Creating a New Message and Conversation
You can send messages by entering a number or email address manually or by selecting a contact from your contacts list.
On the Home screen, tap Messages.
Tap the Compose icon (if you don’t see this icon, tap the Back icon in the upper-left corner of the screen until you do). If you haven’t used the Messages app before, you skip this step and move directly to the New Message screen in the next step.
Type the recipient’s name, email address, or phone number. As you type, the app attempts to match what you type with a saved contact or to someone you have previously messaged and shows you a list of suggested recipients. You see phone numbers or email addresses for each recipient on the list. Phone numbers or addresses in blue indicate the recipient is registered for iMessages and your message is sent via that means. Messages to phone numbers in green are sent as text messages over the cellular network. If a number or email address is gray, you haven’t sent any messages to it yet; you can tap it to attempt to send a message. You also see groups you have previously messaged.
Tap the phone number, email address, or group to which you want to send the message. The recipients’ names are inserted into the To field. Or, if the information you want to use doesn’t appear, just type the complete phone number (as you would dial it to make a call to that number) or email address.
Straight to the Source
You can tap Add (+) in the To field to use the Contacts app to select a contact to whom you want to address the message (see Chapter 6 for the details of using the Contacts app).
Go to the Group
You can tap the Info (i) icon next to a group on the suggested recipients list to see the people that are part of that group.
If you want to send the message to more than one recipient, tap in the space between the current recipient and the Add (+) icon and use steps 3 and 4 to enter the other recipients’ information, either by selecting contacts using the Add (+) icon, or by entering phone numbers or email addresses. As you add recipients, they appear in the To field. (If you addressed the message to a number or email address that matches a number in your contacts, the contact’s name replaces the number in the To field. If not, the number or email address remains as you entered it.)
Tap in the Message bar, which is labeled iMessage if you entered iMessage addresses or Text Message if you entered a phone number. The cursor moves into the Message bar and you are ready to type your message.
Type the message you want to send in the Message bar.
Tap the Send icon, which is blue if you are sending the message via iMessage or green if you are sending it via the cellular network. The Send status bar appears as the message is sent; when the process is complete, you hear the message sent sound and the status bar disappears.
To remove a contact or phone number from the To box, tap it once so it becomes highlighted in blue and then tap Delete on the keyboard.
If the message is addressed to iMessage recipients, your message appears in a blue bubble in a section labeled iMessage. If the person to whom you sent the message enabled his read receipt setting, you see when he reads your message.
If you sent the message via the cellular network instead of iMessage, you see your message in a green bubble in a section labeled Text Message.
When you send a message, you see a new conversation screen if the message was not sent to someone or a group of people with whom you were previously messaging. If you have previously sent messages to the same recipient or recipients, you move back to the existing conversation screen and your new message is added to that conversation instead.
In a group conversation, you see icons and the names of each person who received the message; if there are more than two or three people, the icons “stack” on top of each other. (If you sent a message via a cellular text, you only see the person’s name or number.)
Sending Messages in an Existing Conversation
As you learned earlier, when you send a message to or receive a message from one or more people, a conversation is created. You can add new messages to a conversation as follows:
On the Home screen, tap Messages. You see a list of conversations on the Messages screen. If you were previously in a conversation, you see the messages in that conversation and the people involved at the top of the screen instead. Tap the Back icon, which is the left-facing arrow in the top-left corner of the screen to return to the conversation list on the Messages screen.
On the list, the conversation containing the most recent message you’ve sent or received is at the top; conversations get “older” as you move down the screen.
Swipe up or down the screen or tap in the Search bar and type names, numbers, or email addresses to find the conversation to which you want to add a message.
Tap the conversation to which you want to add a message. At the top of the screen, you see the people involved in the conversation. Under that, you see the current messages in the conversation.
Type your message.
Tap the Send icon. Your new message is added to the conversation and sent to everyone participating in the conversation.
Applying Effects to Messages You Send
The Messages app enables you to apply effects to your messages. Bubble Effects apply to the message you send, whereas Screen effects fill the screen when your message is read. There are quite a few effects you can use, and they are easy to apply using the following steps:
Create a new message or add a message to an existing conversation.
Touch and hold on the Send icon. The Send with effect screen appears.
No iOS 10 or later?
Recipients must be using devices running iOS 10 or later or Macs running macOS Sierra for these effects to play as you see them when you send them. You can send messages with effects to people not using iOS 10 or later devices or Macs running macOS Sierra; the messages are delivered, but the effects are not.
Tap Bubble to apply a Bubble Effect; to apply a Screen Effect instead, skip to step 7.
Tap an effect. It is applied to the current message so you see how it will look.
Tap other effects to see what they do.
Ah, Forget It
If you decide you don’t want to add an effect, tap Delete (x) at the bottom of the screen and you return to your unadorned message, which you can then send without any bells or whistles.
To send the message with the current Bubble Effect, tap the Send icon and skip the rest of these steps. Your message is sent and the recipient sees the effect on the message’s bubble when he opens the message.
Tap Screen to apply a Screen Effect.
Swipe to the left or right. Each time you swipe, a new Screen Effect is applied and you see it on the screen.
When you find the effect you want to use, tap the Send icon. Your message is sent and each recipient sees the effect in the background of the Messages screen when she opens the message. You also see the effect applied to the message on your iPhone.
Including Photos or Video You’ve Recently Taken in Messages You Send
It’s easy to use Messages to quickly send photos or video you’ve taken recently to other people as you see in the following steps:
Move into the conversation with the person or people to whom you want to send a photo, or start a new conversation.
Tap the Camera icon. In the photo pane, you see the photos and video you’ve taken recently.
Send a Video? No Problemo.
The steps in this task and the following two tasks show including photos in messages you send. You can send videos using very similar steps.
Swipe to the left on the photo panel to browse the recent photos and videos.
Tap the first photo or video you want to send. It is marked with a check mark and is added to the message you are sending.
Swipe to the left or right to review more recent photos and videos.
Tap the next photo or video you want to send. It is also marked with a check mark and added to the message.
Repeat steps 5 and 6 until you’ve added all the photos and videos you want to send.
Limitations, Limitations
Not all cell carriers support MMS messages (the type that can contain images and video), and the size of messages can be limited. Check with your carrier for more information about what is supported and whether there are additional charges for using MMS messages. If you’re using iMessage, you don’t have this potential limit and are always able to include images and video in your texts. Also be sure your recipient can receive MMS messages before you send one.
Tap in the Message bar.
Type the comments you want to send with the photos or videos.
Tap the Send icon. The photos, videos, and comments are added to the conversation.
Including Photos or Video Stored on Your iPhone in Messages You Send
You can add any image, photo, or video stored on your iPhone in a conversation by performing the following steps:
Move into the conversation with the person or people to whom you want to send a photo or video, or start a new conversation.
Tap the Camera icon.
Swipe to the right until you see the Photos icon.
Tap Photos.
Swipe up or down the screen to find the source containing the photos or videos you want to send. (For more information about using the Photos app to find and select photos, see Chapter 14, “Viewing and Editing Photos and Video with the Photos App.”)
Tap the source containing the photos or videos you want to send.
Swipe up or down the screen until you see the photo or video you want to send.
Tap the photo or video you want to send.
Tap Choose. You move back to the conversation and see the image or video in the Message bar.
Tap in the Message bar.
Type the message you want to send with the photo or video.
Tap the Send icon.
Taking Photos or Video and Sending Them in Messages
You can capture new photos and video using the iPhone’s cameras and immediately send them to others via Messages as follows:
Move into the conversation with the person or people to whom you want to send a photo or video, or start a new conversation.
Tap the Camera icon.
To use the full Camera app to take the photo or video, go on to step 4; to take a photo using the small camera window you see on the screen, position the image that you want to take and tap the Shutter icon. The photo is taken and added to the message; skip to step 10.
Tap the Camera icon. (If you don’t see the Camera icon, swipe to the right on the bottom of the screen until you see it.)
Use the Camera app to take the photo or video you want to send. (For more information about taking photos or videos, see Chapter 13, “Taking Photos and Video with Your iPhone.”)
Use the tools you see to modify the photo or video, such as to add markups or edit it (see Chapter 14 for details).
Use the tools you selected in the previous step to make changes to the photo or video. This example shows adding a markup to a photo.
Tap Save.
Tap Done.
Tap in the Message bar.
Type the message you want to send with the photo.
Tap the Send icon. The photo and message are added to the conversation.
This Isn’t Houston, but There Is a Problem
If a message you try to send is undeliverable or has some other problem, it is marked with an error icon, which is an exclamation point inside a red circle. The most common cause of this issue is a poor Internet connection. Tap the error icon and tap Try Again to attempt to resend the message. If it doesn’t work again, you might need to wait until you have a better connection.
Sharing with Messages
You can share all sorts of information via Messages from many apps, such as Safari, Contacts, Maps, and so on. From the app containing the information you want to share, tap the Share icon. Then tap Messages. The information with which you are working is automatically added to a new message. Use the Messages app to complete and send the message.
Using Digital Touches in Messages You Send
You can enhance your messages with Digital Touches, which are dynamic images you draw with your fingers, or you can use the default images.
Move into the conversation with the person or people to whom you want to send a Digital Touch.
If you see the Digital Touch icon, skip to step 3; if not, tap the app icon.
Tap the Digital Touch icon. The Digital Touch panel opens.
Tap the upward-facing arrow to open the Digital Touch screen in full screen mode.
To send one of the default Digital Touches, move to step 8; to create your own Digital Touch, tap the color you want to use. The current color’s icon has a dot in the center to show it’s selected.
Use your finger to draw or write on the screen. You can change the color at any time; for example, you can use different colors in a drawing or for each letter in a word. Drawing on the Digital Touch screen is much like using colored pencils on paper.
Tap the Send icon to send it. The full screen mode digital pane collapses and you see a preview of your Digital Touch as it sends.
Use the Small Screen
You can create Digital Touches directly in the small Digital Touch panel that appears when you tap the Digital Touch icon. Putting it in full screen mode gives you more room to work but takes slightly longer. To create a touch directly in the panel, use the Digital Touch drawing tools directly in the small window and then tap the Send icon to send it.
Tap the Info (i) icon. You see a list of all the gestures you can use to add a Digital Touch to a conversation. (This step is optional. If you know the gesture to create the Digital Touch you want to send, skip to step 11.)
Review the default Digital Touches.
Tap the Close (x) icon to close the list.
iOS 10 Required
Like effects, the recipient must be using a device running iOS 10 or later or a Mac running macOS Sierra to receive Digital Touches as you see them when you send them. If you send a Digital Touch message to devices not running iOS 10 or later, they appear as a static image in the message.
Start Over
To get rid of the contents of the Digital Touch screen, tap Delete (x).
Use the finger gesture to add the default Digital Touch you want to the conversation. You see a preview in the Digital Touch pane, and the Digital Touch is immediately sent to the recipients and added to the conversation.
Adding Apps to Messages
You can use apps to add content to your messages. You can use the default apps installed in Messages (examples are provided later in this chapter) and you can add more apps as follows:
Open Messages and move into a conversation.
Tap the Apps icon. The App Drawer opens and you see the installed apps at the bottom of the screen. The app you used most recently is selected automatically.
Tap the App Store app (if you don’t see this app, swipe to the left or right on the App Drawer until you see it).
Tap Visit Store. You move into the App Store and see apps that work within Messages.
Browse or search within the App Store to find apps you want to add to Messages, such as stickers you can insert into your messages. This works very similarly to using the App Store app, which is covered in Chapter 4. Note that if you just browse you only see Messages-compatible apps, but if you search you see both “regular” apps and Messages apps.
Tap the Get icon for a free app or the price icon for an app with a license fee. You might have to touch the Touch ID button, use Face ID, or enter your Apple ID password to complete the process. Just like other apps, it is downloaded to your iPhone, but it’s installed in the Messages App Drawer instead of on a Home screen.
After the app is downloaded, it appears in the App Drawer, and you can use it.
Managing Apps in Messages
You can configure the apps in the App Drawer by performing the following steps:
Open Messages and move into a conversation.
Tap the Apps icon. The App Drawer opens.
Swipe to the left on the App Drawer until you see the More icon. As you swipe on the App Drawer, it enlarges so you can more clearly see the app icons.
Tap More. You see apps currently installed on the App Drawer. There are two sections. FAVORITES are apps you’ve tagged as your favorites; these appear on the left end of the App Drawer and so are easier to access. In the MORE APPS section, you see the other apps in the App Drawer. You can use the apps in either section.
If you don’t want to see an app in the App Drawer, set its switch to off (white). It no longer appears in the App Drawer, but remains available so you can re-enable it again.
Get Rid of It
If you want to remove an app from the App Drawer, perform steps 1 through 4. Swipe to the left on the app you want to remove. Tap Delete. The app is removed from the App Drawer.
To move an app into the FAVORITES section, tap Add (+). It jumps up to the FAVORITES section.
To move an app from FAVORITES to MORE APPS, tap its Unlock (−) icon.
Tap Remove from Favorites. The app moves to the lower section, but remains in the App Drawer.
To change the order of the apps in the FAVORITES section, drag apps up or down the list by their Order (three lines) icon.
When you’re done managing apps, tap Done.
Tap Done.
Adding Content from Apps to Messages You Send
You can use the apps on the Messages’ App Drawer to add content to the messages you send. As you saw in the previous task, there are many different types of apps available and each works according to the type of content you can use. Some are quite simple, such as providing icons or images (sometimes called stickers) you can easily add to messages. Others are a bit more complicated; for example, you can use the #images app to search for and add images to your messages. Using any of these apps to add content to your messages follows a similar pattern, so once you see how to use one of them, you can use any of them fairly easily.
This example shows you how to use the #images app to add static images and animated gifs to your messages:
Move into a conversation or start a new one.
If you don’t see the app you want to use, swipe to the left or right until you do. (If you don’t see the App Drawer, tap the Apps icon to open it first.)
Tap the app you want to use.
Tap the up-facing arrow to expand the app to full screen; this step is optional because you can use the app in the collapsed view in the same way.
Type a search term. Search terms that match what you type are listed.
Tap the search you want to perform. (If you don’t see a search you want to use, complete your search phrase and tap the Search key on the keyboard.)
Swipe up and down the screen to browse all the images that match your search.
Tap the image you want to add to the conversation.
Tap in the Message bar. In many cases, you’ll skip adding a message (steps 9 and 10) and just send the content by skipping to step 11.
Type a comment you want to send with the content you added.
Delete It
To delete the content without sending it, tap Delete (x) that appears on the content you’ve added to the conversation.
Tap the Send icon to send the app content you’ve added.
Including Instant Audio in Messages You Send
You can send audio messages that you record via a message by performing the following steps:
Move to the conversation to which you want to add an audio message, or start a new conversation.
Touch and hold on the Microphone in the Message bar (not the one on the keyboard). Recording starts.
Speak your message; keep your finger touching the Microphone while you speak.
When you’re done recording, take your finger off the screen.
Tap the Play icon to replay your message.
If you don’t want to send the message, delete it by tapping Delete (x).
Tap the Send icon to send the message. The audio message is added to the conversation and the recipients are able to listen to it.
Adding Your Location to Messages You Send
Location information can be available for the participants in a conversation so you can see where others are, and they can see where you are. You can add your location information to a conversation as follows:
Move to the conversation to which you want to add your location information.
Tap the Info (i) icon.
To share your current location as a snapshot, tap Send My Current Location. Your current location is captured and sent to the recipients of the message.
To dynamically share your location so that it updates as you move around, tap Share My Location.
Tap how long you want your location information to be shared.
Current Locations
When a current location is added to a conversation, it is static, meaning it is only the location at that point in time. It appears as a map thumbnail in the conversation. Recipients can tap it to zoom in on the location, and then tap Directions to Here to generate directions from their location to the one sent as the current location.
If you have multiple devices that can provide your location, you can configure which device is used to determine your location by opening the Settings app, tapping Privacy, tapping Location Services, tapping Share My Location, tapping From, and then tapping the device that should be used for your position.
To stop sharing your location, tap Stop Sharing My Location. If you selected to share it for one hour or until the end of the day, location sharing stops automatically at the time you selected.
Tap Done to return to the conversation.
Using Quick Actions to Send Messages
You can use the Quick Actions feature on iPhones that support 3D Touch with the Messages app as follows:
Press on the Messages icon. The Quick Actions menu appears.
Tap the person to whom you want to send a message or tap New Message to send a message to someone not shown on the list. If you choose a person, you move into an existing conversation with that person or a new conversation is started. If you choose New Message, you move to the New Message screen.
Complete and send the message.
Receiving, Reading, and Replying to Messages
Text messaging is about communication, so when you send messages you expect to receive responses. People can also send new messages to you. As you learned earlier, the Messages app keeps messages grouped as a conversation consisting of messages you send and replies you receive to the same person or group of people.
Receiving Messages
When you aren’t currently using the Messages screen in the Messages app and receive a new message (as a new conversation or as a new message in an ongoing conversation), you see, hear, and feel the notifications you have configured for the Messages app. (Refer to Chapter 4 to configure your Messages notifications.)
If you are on the Messages screen in the Messages app when a new message comes in, you hear and feel the new message notification sound and/or vibration, but a notification does not appear. On the conversation list, any conversations containing a new message are marked with a blue circle showing the number of new messages in that conversation.
If a new message is from someone with whom you have previously sent or received a message, and you haven’t deleted all the messages to or from those recipients (no matter how long it has been since a message was added to that conversation), the new message is appended to an ongoing conversation. That conversation then moves to the top of the list of conversations in the Messages app. If there isn’t an existing message to or from the people involved in a new message, a new conversation is started and the message appears at the top of that list.
Speaking of Texting
Using Siri to hear and speak text messages is extremely useful. Check out Chapter 11, “Working with Siri,” for examples showing how you can take advantage of this great feature. One of the most useful Messages commands is to activate Siri and say “Get new messages.” Siri reads any new messages you have received.
Reading Messages
You can get to new messages you receive by doing any of the following:
Read a message in its alert. Tap a banner alert notification from Messages to move into the message’s conversation in the Messages app.
If you are using an iPhone that supports 3D Touch, you can press on an alert to open the conversation to which the message was added. You can read all the messages it contains and reply to those messages.
Open the Messages app and tap a conversation containing a new message; these conversations appear at the top of the Messages list and are marked with a blue circle. The conversation opens and you see the new message.
Swipe to the right on a message notification when it appears on the Lock screen. You move into the conversation to which the message was sent (you might need to unlock your phone first).
If you receive a new message in a conversation that you are currently viewing, you immediately see the new message.
However you get to a message, you see the new message in either an existing conversation or a new conversation. The newest messages appear at the bottom of the screen. You can swipe up and down the screen to see all of the messages in the conversation. As you move up the screen, you move back in time.
Messages sent to you are on the left side of the screen and appear in gray bubbles. Just above the bubble is the name of the person sending the message; if you have an image for the contact, that image appears next to the bubble. The color of your bubbles indicates how the message was sent: blue indicates an iMessage while green indicates a cellular message.
Viewing Images or Video You Receive in Messages
When you receive a photo or video as an attachment, it appears in a thumbnail along with the accompanying message.
To view a photo or video attachment, tap it. You see the photo or video at a larger size. You can rotate the phone, zoom, and swipe around the photo just like viewing photos in the Photos app (see Chapter 14 for details). You can watch a video in the same way, too.
Tap the Share icon to share the photo with others via a message, email, tweet, Facebook, and so on. (When you hold an iPhone Plus horizontally, all the icons are at the top of the screen.)
If there is more than one photo or video in the conversation, you see the number of them at the top of the screen. Swipe to the left or right to move through the available photos.
Tap the List icon to see a list of the recent photos in the conversation (this only appears if there is more than one photo in the conversation).
Tap a photo on the list to view it. Tap Close to return to the photo you were viewing.
To move back to the conversation, tap Done.
When you use an iPhone that supports 3D Touch and you press on a photo, it opens in a Peek. If you continue pressing on the photo, it opens in the view window just like when you tap on it in the conversation.
When you are peeking at a photo, swipe up on it to reveal options. You can copy the photo so you can paste it elsewhere, save the photo in the Photos app, or forward it to others.
No 3D Touch?
If your iPhone doesn’t support 3D Touch, you can save a photo by touching the photo (don’t apply pressure) and using the Save Image command on the resulting menu. You can also copy or forward it from this menu.
When you receive an audio message, you can tap the Play icon to play it, or, if you enabled the Raise to Listen option, lift the phone to your ear and the message plays automatically. Tap the Speaker icon to hear the message via the iPhone’s speakerphone.
While the message is playing, you see its status along with the Pause icon, which you can tap to pause the audio message. After the message finishes, you see a message saying that it expires in 2 minutes or 1 year, depending on your settings. That message is quickly replaced by Keep.
Tap Keep to save the message on your phone. (Keep disappears indicating the audio is saved.)
When one or more of the recipients of an audio message that you sent keeps it, a status message is added to the conversation on your phone, so you know who keeps audio messages you have sent. And, others know when you keep their messages, too.
Replying to Messages from the Messages App
To reply to a message, read the message and do the following:
Read, watch, or listen to the most recent message.
Use the photos, Digital Touch, or App tools to reply with content of that type as you learned about earlier in this chapter.
Tap in the Message bar if you want to reply with text.
Type your reply or use the Dictation feature to speak your reply (this is translated to text; it’s not recording and embedding an audio message).
Tap the Send icon.
The Messages app can switch between types of messages. For example, if you have an iMessage conversation going but can’t access the iMessage service for some reason, the app can send messages as a cellular text. It can switch the other way, too. The app tries to send iMessages first if it can but chooses whichever method it needs to get the messages through. (If you disabled the Send as SMS option, messages are only sent via iMessage.)
More Tricks of the Messaging Trade
My Acquisitions Editor Extraordinaire pointed out that people can’t receive messages when their phones aren’t connected to the Internet (via Wi-Fi or cell). You don’t see a warning in this case; you can only tell the message wasn’t delivered because the Delivered status doesn’t appear under the message. The message is delivered as soon as the other person’s phone is connected to the Internet again, and its status is updated accordingly on your phone. Also, when an iMessage can’t be delivered, you can tap and hold on it; then tap Send as Text Message. The app tries to send the message via SMS instead of iMessage.
Replying to Messages from a Banner Alert
If you have banner alerts configured for your messages, you can reply directly from the alert from either the Home or Lock screens:
Press on the notification (3D Touch) or swipe to the right (non-3D Touch). The conversation opens.
Type your reply or tap the right-facing arrow to add other types of content to your response.
Tap the Send icon. Your message is added to the conversation.
Having a Messages Conversation
Messaging is all about the back-and-forth communication with one or more people. You’ve already learned the skills you need, so put them all together. You can start a new conversation by sending a message to one or more people with whom you don’t have an ongoing conversation; or you can add to a conversation already underway.
Send a new message to a person or add a new message to an existing conversation. You see when your message has been delivered. If you sent the message to an individual person via iMessages and he has enabled his Read Receipt setting, you see when he has read your message and you see a bubble as he is composing a response. (If you are conversing with more than one person, the person doesn’t have her Read Receipt setting enabled, or the conversation is happening via the cellular network, you don’t see either of these.)
As the recipient composes a response, you see a bubble on the screen where the new message will appear when it is received (again, only if it is an iMessage with a single individual). Of course, you don’t have to remain on the conversation’s screen waiting for a response. You can move to a different conversation or a different app. When the response comes in, you are notified per your notification settings.
Send your next message.
Repeat these steps as long as you want. Conversations remain in the Messages app until you remove them. Messages within conversations remain forever (unless you delete them, for one year, or for 30 days depending on your Keep Messages setting as shown earlier in this chapter).
Seen But Not Read
Don’t take the Read status too literally. All it means is that the conversation to which your message was added has been viewed. Of course, the Messages app can’t know whether the recipient actually read the message.
The iMessage Will Be With You…Always
Messages that are sent with iMessage move with you from device to device, so they appear on every device configured to use your iMessage account. Because of this, you can start a conversation on your iPhone while you are on the move and pick it up on your iPad or Mac later.
Working with Messages
As you send and receive messages, the interaction you have with each person or group becomes a separate conversation. A conversation consists of all the messages that have gone back and forth. You manage your conversations from the Messages screen.
Multiple Conversations with the Same People
The Messages app manages conversations based on the phone number or email address associated with the messages in that conversation rather than the people (contacts) involved in the conversation. So, you might have multiple conversations with the same person if that person used a different means, such as a phone number and an email address, to send messages to you.
Managing Messages Conversations
Use the Messages screen to manage your messages.
On the Home screen, tap Messages.
The Messages screen showing conversations you have going appears, or you move into the conversation you were most recently using (tap the left-facing arrow at the top of the screen to move back to the conversation list). Conversations containing new messages appear at the top of the list. The name of the conversation is the name of the person or people associated with it, or it might be labeled as Group if the app can’t display the names. If a contact can’t be associated with the person, you see the phone number or email address you are conversing with instead of a name.
Many organizations use messages to keep you informed. Examples are airlines that send flight status information, retailers that use messages to keep you informed about shipping, and so on. These messages are identified by a set of numbers that don’t look like a phone number. You can’t send a response to most of these messages; they are one-way only. In some cases, you can issue commands related to the texts from that organization, such as “Stop” to stop further texts from being sent.
Swipe up and down the list to see all the conversations.
Tap a conversation you want to read or reply to. The conversation screen appears; the name of the screen is the people with whom you are conversing, either by name if they are a contact or email address or phone number if they aren’t.
Read the new messages or view other new content in the conversation. Your messages are on the right side of the screen in green (cell network) or blue (iMessage), whereas the other people’s messages are on the left in gray. Messages are organized so the newest message is at the bottom of the screen.
Swipe up and down the conversation screen to see all the messages it contains.
To add a new message to the conversation, tap in the Message bar, type your message or use an app to add content, and tap the Send icon.
Swipe down to scroll up the screen and move back in time in the conversation.
To see details about the conversation, tap the Info (i) icon. The Details screen appears. At the top of the screen, you see location information for the people with whom you are texting if it is available.
See the Time of Every Message
To see the time or date associated with every message in the conversation being displayed, swipe to the left and hold your finger down on the screen. The messages shift to the left and the time of each message appears along the right side of the screen. The date associated with each message appears right before the first message on that date.
If you are working with a group message and want to give it a name, tap Enter a Group Name. If you are working with a conversation involving one other person or don’t want to name the group, skip to step 11.
What’s in a Name?
When you name a group (conversation), that name is applied to the conversation for all the participants.
Enter the name of the group, and tap Done.
To place a voice call or audio-only FaceTime call to one of the participants in the conversation, tap the Phone icon. If the person has a phone number configured, you’re prompted to choose Voice Call or FaceTime Audio. When you make a choice, that call is placed. If the person only has an email address, an audio-only FaceTime call is placed over the Internet. You move into the Phone or FaceTime app and use that app to complete the call. (See Chapter 7, “Communicating with the Phone and FaceTime Apps,” for the details about those apps.) Move to the Home screen and tap Messages or use the App Switcher to return to the Messages app.
Send a private message to one of the participants by tapping the Messages icon.
Place a FaceTime video call by tapping the Video Camera icon. You move into the FaceTime app to complete the call. When you’re done, move to the Home screen and tap Messages or use the App Switcher to return to the Messages app.
To view a participant’s contact information or send an email, tap the person whose information you want to view.
Work with the contact information as described in Chapter 6.
Tap the Back icon to return to the Details screen and click Done to return to the conversation screen.
Receiving and Reading Messages on an iPhone Plus
The larger screen on the iPhone Plus provides some additional functionality that is unique to it. You can access this by holding the iPhone Plus horizontally when you use the Messages app.
Open the Messages app and hold the iPhone so it is oriented horizontally. The window splits into two panes. On the left is the Navigation pane, where you can move to and select conversations you want to view. When you select a conversation in the left pane, its messages appear in the Content pane on the right.
Swipe up or down the Navigation pane to browse the conversations available to you. Notice that the two panes are independent. When you browse the left pane, the right pane doesn’t change.
Tap the conversation containing messages you want to read. The messages in that conversation appear in the Content pane on the right.
Swipe up and down the Content pane to read the messages in the conversation.
Work with the messages in the conversation just like when the iPhone is held vertically.
To add a message to the conversation, tap in the Message bar, type your message, and tap Send. Of course, you can embed audio, attach photos or video, add content from apps, or send your location just as you can when using Messages when you hold the iPhone vertically.
Work with the conversation’s details by tapping the Info (i) icon.
Change conversations by tapping the conversation you want to view.
Using 3D Touch for Messages
You can use the 3D Touch feature (iPhone 6s and later models) with the Messages app as follows:
Browse your messages.
Tap and hold on a conversation in which you are interested. A Peek of that conversation appears.
Review the preview of the messages that appear in the Peek.
Open the conversation so you can read all of its messages by pressing down slightly harder until it pops open. Use the steps in the earlier task to read it (skip the rest of these steps).
See actions you can perform on the message by swiping up on the Peek.
Tap the reply you want to make, which is based on the context of the previous message, such as responding to the question “How did it go?,” to reply to the message with that message. If you tap Custom, you can create a custom reply to the message as you can when you view the conversation.
Browsing Attachments to Conversations
As photos, videos, and documents are added to a conversation, they are collected so you can browse and view them at any time:
Move to the conversation in which you want to browse attachments.
Tap the Info (i) icon.
Swipe up until you see the Images and Attachments tabs.
Tap Images to see images attached to the conversation or Attachments to work with other types of attachments (such as PDF documents).
Swipe up and down on the attachments until you see one you want to view.
Tap the attachment you want to view.
View the attachment, such as looking at a photo.
Tap Done to return to the Details screen.
Keep Quiet!
You can disable notifications for a specific conversation by tapping its Info (i) icon to move to the Details screen. Set the Hide Alerts switch to on (green). You no longer are notified when new messages arrive in that conversation. Set the switch to off (white) to have notifications resume.
I’m Outta Here!
If you don’t want to participate in a conversation any more, open the Details screen and tap Leave this Conversation.
Working with Messages from People You Might Not Know
As you use Messages, it is likely you’ll receive messages from people who aren’t in your contacts or who you haven’t sent messages to before. Some of these will be legitimate contacts with whom you have messaged previously while some will just be because the person sending the message made a mistake, such as not typing the phone number correctly; others will be made for nefarious purposes. The Messages app can filter messages from unknown people for you and put them on the Unknown Senders tab so you can easily identify messages that are from people who you might not know.
To use this functionality, the Filter Unknown Senders switch on the Messages Settings screen must be turned on (green). (The details of configuring Messages settings are provided in “Setting Your Text and iMessage Preferences” earlier in this chapter.) When this switch is on, you see two tabs in the Messages app. The Contacts & SMS tab lists conversations with people who are contacts or with whom you have communicated previously. The Unknown Senders tab lists conversations from people who aren’t contacts or with whom you haven’t communicated previously. (If the Filter Unknown Senders switch is off, you don’t see these tabs.)
If you enable the Filter Unknown Senders feature, you can work with “suspicious” messages as follows:
Open the Messages app.
Tap the Unknown Senders tab.
Tap a message to read it so you can determine if it is a legitimate message for you.
Review the identification of the sender as best Messages can determine it, such as an email address.
Read the message.
If the message is from someone you don’t recognize and don’t want to receive future messages from, tap Report Junk. The sender’s message is deleted from the Messages app and the associated email address or phone number is blocked so you won’t receive any more messages from the sender.
If you want to take other action on the sender, tap the Info (i) icon.
Tap the contact information for the sender.
If you recognize the person, want to communicate with her, but don’t have a contact configured for her, tap Create New Contact to create a new contact for the person. (For information about creating or updating contacts, see Chapter 6.)
If you recognize the person, want to communicate with her, and have a contact configured for her, tap Add to Existing Contact to update a current contact with new information.
If you don’t want to receive future messages from the sender, tap Block this Caller.
Tap Block Contact.
Junk or Block?
When you report a message as junk, the contact is blocked from communicating with you, but their information is not stored on your iPhone. When you block the contact instead, messages don’t reach you, but the contact information is stored on the list of people you have blocked. You can unblock people from this list if you want to resume communicating with them. You can’t resume communicating with someone whose messages you have marked as junk.
View a conversation.
If you are using an iPhone with 3D Touch, press and hold on a message you want to respond to; if you are using a non-3D Touch phone, just touch and hold on a message. You can respond to any message, even if it’s one you sent.
Tap the icon you want to add to the message; for example, tap the thumbs-up icon to indicate you like a message. The icon you select is added to the message.
Deleting Messages and Conversations
Old text conversations never die, nor do they fade away (if you have your Keep Messages setting set to Forever, that is). All the messages you receive from a person or that involve the same group of people stay in the conversation. Over time, you can build up a lot of messages in one conversation, and you can end up with lots of conversations. (If you set the Keep Messages setting to be 30 Days or 1 Year, messages older than the time you set are deleted automatically.)
Long Conversation?
When a conversation gets very long, the Messages app won’t display all its messages. It keeps the more current messages visible on the conversation screen. To see earlier messages, swipe down on the screen to move to the top and tap Load Earlier Messages.
When a conversation gets too long, if you just want to remove specific messages from a conversation, or, if you want to get rid of messages to free up storage space, take these steps:
Move to a conversation containing an abundance of messages.
If you are using an iPhone with 3D Touch, press and hold on a message you want to delete; if you are using a non-3D Touch phone, just touch and hold on a message to be deleted.
Tap More. The message on which you tapped is marked with a check mark to show it is selected.
Be a Copycat
Tap Copy to copy a message so you can paste it in other messages or in other apps.
Tap other messages you want to delete. They are marked with a check mark to show you have selected them.
Delete Them All!
To delete all the messages in the conversation, instead of performing step 4, tap Delete All, which appears in the upper-left corner of the screen. Tap Delete Conversation in the confirmation box. The conversation and all its messages are deleted.
Tap the Trash Can.
Tap Delete X Messages, where X is the number of messages you have selected. The messages are deleted and you return to the conversation.
Pass It On
If you want to send one or more messages to someone else, perform steps 1−4. Tap the Forward icon that appears in the lower-right corner of the screen. A new message is created and the messages you selected are pasted into it. Select or enter the recipients to whom you want to send the messages, and tap Send.
Move to the Messages screen.
Swipe to the left on the conversation you want to delete.
Tap Delete. The conversation and all the messages it contains are deleted.
Gone, but Not Forgotten?
When you delete an iMessage conversation, it is removed from your iPhone. However, the actual conversation remains on the cloud and on other devices on which your iMessages account is configured. If you send a message to the same person or people who were on the conversation you deleted, it is restored to your iPhone.