11. Send and Receive Emails, Texts, and Instant Messages with the Mail and Messages Apps

If you’re someone who’s constantly on the go, being able to send and receive emails from virtually anywhere there’s a cellular or Wi-Fi Internet connection enables you to stay in touch, stay informed, and be productive from wherever you happen to be. Managing one or more email accounts from an iPhone or iPad is more practical than ever, thanks to the improvements made to the Mail app that comes preinstalled with iOS 8.

The Mail app offers a comprehensive set of tools, features, and functions to help you compose, send, receive, and organize emails from one or more existing accounts. From your iPhone or iPad, you can simultaneously manage your personal and work-related email accounts, as well as the free email account that’s provided when you set up an iCloud account.

Before you can begin using the Mail app, it’s necessary to set up your existing email accounts from within Settings.

If you have an email account through your employer that doesn’t initially work using the setup procedure outlined in this chapter, contact your company’s IT department or Apple’s technical support for assistance.

Follow these steps to set up your iOS device to work with each of your existing email accounts:

1. From the Home screen, launch Settings.

2. Tap on the Mail, Contacts, Calendars option.

3. When the Mail, Contacts, Calendars menu appears, tap on the Add Account option displayed near the top of the screen, below the Accounts heading.

4. From the Add Account screen, select the type of email account you have. Your options include iCloud, Microsoft Exchange, Google Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail, Microsoft Outlook.com, and Other (shown in Figure 11.1). Tap on the appropriate option. If you have a POP3 or IMAP-compatible email account that doesn’t otherwise fall into one of the provided email types, tap on the Other option, and follow the onscreen prompts.

If you have an existing Yahoo! email account, for example, tap on the Yahoo! icon. When the Yahoo! account setup screen appears (shown in Figure 11.2), use the iPhone or iPad’s virtual keyboard to enter your account name, email address, password, and a description for the account.

5. Tap on the Next button located in the upper-right corner of the window. Your iOS device connects to the email account’s server and confirms the account details you’ve entered. The word Verifying appears on the screen.

6. After the account has been verified, a new window with options is displayed. They’re probably labeled Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, and Notes, although depending on the type of email account you’re setting up, not all of these options might be available. They’re used to determine what additional app-specific data can be linked with the Mail account, such as your Contacts database, the schedule from your Calendar app, your to-do list from the Reminders app, or your notes from the Notes app.

7. Tap on the Save button located in the upper-right corner of this window. An Adding Account message is briefly displayed, and details about the email account you just set up are added to your iOS device and become immediately accessible via the Mail app.

8. If you have another existing email account to set up, from the Mail, Contacts, Calendars screen in the Settings app, tap on the Add Account option again, and repeat the preceding procedure. Otherwise, exit the Settings app and launch the Mail app from the Home screen.

Depending on the type of email account you’re setting up, the information for which you’re prompted varies slightly. For example, to set up an existing Microsoft Exchange email account, the prompts you need to fill in during the email setup procedure include Email Address, Domain, Username, Password, and a Description for the account. To set up an existing iCloud email account, you only need to enter your existing Apple ID and password.

After the account is set up, it is listed in Settings under the Accounts heading when you tap on the Mail, Contacts, Calendars option.

At the top of the Mail, Contacts, Calendars screen within Settings is a listing of the individual email accounts you have already linked with the Mail app. Below this is the Fetch New Data option. Use this to determine how often your iOS device automatically accesses the Internet to check for and download new incoming email messages from each email account’s server.

By scrolling down on the Mail, Contacts, Calendars menu screen, you see the Mail heading. Below this heading is a handful of customizable options relating to how the Mail app manages your email accounts and email messages:

Preview—As you look at your Inbox (or any mailbox) using the Mail app, you can determine how much of each email message’s body text is visible from the mailbox summary screen, in addition to the From, Date/Time, and Subject. You can choose None or between one and five lines of the email message.

Show To/Cc Label—Decide whether to view the To and Cc fields when viewing the preview screen for emails.

Swipe Options—This new iOS 8 feature enables you to manage the Inbox of your email accounts. Now, as you’re looking at the previews of each message in your inbox, you can swipe from left to right or right to left across each message listing to access menu options (shown in Figure 11.4).

Flag Style—When you flag an email as important, the Flag style determines whether the Mail app displays a flag-shaped icon or a colored dot next to the flagged email message.

Ask Before Deleting—This option serves as a safety net to ensure that you don’t accidentally delete an important email message from your iOS device. When this feature is turned on, you’re asked to confirm your message deletion request before an email message is actually deleted. By default, you cannot delete email messages stored on your email account’s server. When you delete a message from the Mail app, it is deleted from your iPhone or iPad but is still accessible from other devices. On your iOS device, it might also appear in the Trash folder that’s related to that email account, depending on how it is set up.

Load Remote Images—When an email message has a photo or graphic embedded in it, this option determines whether the image is automatically downloaded and displayed with the email message. You can opt to refrain from automatically loading graphics with email messages to reduce the amount of data transferred to your iPhone or iPad (which is a consideration if you’re connected to the Internet via a cellular data network). You still have the option to tap on the placeholder icon in the email message to manually download the images in a specific message.

Organize by Thread—This feature enables you to review messages in reverse chronological order if a single message turns into a back-and-forth email conversation in which multiple parties keep hitting Reply to respond to messages with the same subject. When turned on, this makes keeping track of email conversations much easier, especially if you’re managing several email accounts on your iPhone or iPad. If it’s turned off, messages in your Inbox are displayed in reverse chronological order as they’re received, not grouped by subject.

Always Bcc Myself—When this feature is turned on, a copy of every outgoing email is sent to your Inbox. Typically, all outgoing messages automatically get saved in a Sent folder that’s related to that account. If your email account type does not enable you to access sent emails from another computer or device, using the Bcc Myself option compensates for this. When you send an email message from your iPhone/iPad, using this feature also ensures that the message becomes accessible from your primary computer.

Mark Addresses—By tapping on this option, you can enter a portion of an email address, and then be alerted each time an email is received that meets that search criteria. For example, if you do business with many people who work at Widget.com, in the Mark Address field, if you store “widget.com,” anyone with an email address ending with widget.com, such as [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected] is automatically flagged in your Inbox to get your attention. This feature is particularly useful if you’re using an iPhone in a corporate environment.

Increase Quote Level—When turned on, anytime you reply to a message or forward a message, the contents of that original email appear indented, making it easier to differentiate between the message you add and the original message being replied to or forwarded. This option impacts message formatting, not actual content.

Signature—For every outgoing email that you compose, you can automatically add an email signature. The default signature is “Sent from my iPhone” or “Sent from my iPad.” However, by tapping on this option within Settings, you can create customized signatures for each email account. A signature might include your name, mailing address, email address, phone number(s), and so forth.

Default Account—If you’re using the Mail app to manage multiple email accounts, when you reply to a message or forward a message, it is always sent from the email account to which the message was originally sent. However, if you tap on the Compose New Email icon to create a new email from scratch, the email account from which the message is sent is whichever you have set up as the Mail app’s default account. If you wish to change this account for a specific email, simply tap on the From field as you’re composing a new email and select one of your other accounts.

Even though Mail enables you to simultaneously view incoming emails from multiple accounts within a single listing, behind the scenes, the app automatically keeps your incoming and outgoing emails, and your various email accounts, separate. So if you opt to read and respond to an email from your work-related Inbox, for example, that response is automatically sent out from your work-related email account and saved in the Sent Folder for that account.

Viewing all the Inboxes for all of your accounts simultaneously makes it faster to review your incoming emails, without having to manually switch between email accounts.

If you have multiple email accounts being managed from your iOS device, to view all of your Inboxes simultaneously, or to switch between Inboxes, follow these steps:

1. Launch the Mail app.

2. The Inbox you last looked at is probably displayed. If only one email account is set up to work with your iPhone, the last email you viewed is displayed.

3. Tap on the left-pointing, arrow-shaped Mailboxes option displayed in the upper-left corner of the screen to select which Inbox you want to view. If you’re looking at a particular account’s Inbox, the arrow-shaped option is labeled Back.

4. From the menu that appears, the first option displayed is All Inboxes. Tap on this to view a single listing of all incoming emails. Or tap on any single email account that’s listed on the Mailboxes screen.

When you tap on the Compose icon, a blank New Message email message template appears on the iPhone or iPad’s screen. On the iPhone, a New Message screen is displayed. On the iPad, a New Message pop-up window appears. Using the virtual keyboard, fill in the To, Cc, Bcc, and/or Subject fields (as shown in Figure 11.5). You must fill in the To field with a valid email address for at least one recipient. The other fields are optional.

You can send the same email to multiple recipients by either adding multiple email addresses to the To field, or by adding additional email addresses to the Cc and/or Bcc fields.

If you’re managing one email account from your iOS device, the From field is automatically filled in with your email address. However, if you’re managing multiple email addresses from the iPhone or iPad, tap on the From field to select which email address you want to send the message from if you don’t want to use the default account.

Next, tap on the Subject field and use the virtual keyboard to enter the subject for your message. As you do this, the subject appears at the very top center of the Compose window (replacing the New Message heading).

To begin creating the main body of the outgoing email message, tap in the main body area of the message template on the screen, and begin using the virtual keyboard (or the external keyboard you’re using with your iPhone or iPad) to compose your message. You also have the option of tapping on the Dictation key and then dictating your message using iOS 8’s Dictation feature.

The signature you set up from within Settings for the selected From account is automatically displayed at the bottom of each newly composed message. You can return to Settings to turn off the Signature feature, or change the signature that appears. A signature can also be edited or added manually directly from the Compose screen as you create or edit each message.

When your email is fully written and ready to be sent, tap on Send in the upper-right corner of the Compose window. In a few seconds, the message is sent from your iOS device, assuming that it is connected to the Internet. A copy of the message appears in your Sent or Outbox folder.

As a message is being sent, a “Sending” notification appears near the bottom of the Mail app’s screen.

To format text in an email message you’re composing, type the text as you normally would using the virtual keyboard. After the text appears in your email, hold your finger on a word to make the Select, Select All, Paste, Insert Photo or Video, and Quote Level command tabs appear above that word.

Tap on Select, and then use your finger to move the blue dots that appear to highlight the text you want to modify. When the appropriate text is highlighted in blue, tap the right-pointing arrow that appears above the text (next to the Cut, Copy, and Paste commands), and then tap on the BIU option. A new menu appears above the highlighted text with three options, labeled Bold, Italics, and Underline. Tap on one or more of these tabs to alter the highlighted text. On the iPad, all options are listed and no scrolling is required.

When the Insert Photo or Video tab is displayed, tap on it. The Photos screen (iPhone) or window (iPad) appears. Select the photo you want to insert into the email by selecting an album and then tapping on an image or video thumbnail. The photo/video you selected is previewed in the Choose Photo window. Tap on the Use button to insert the photo or video into your email.

You can repeat this process to include multiple images within an email (up to five), keeping in mind that the overall file size associated with the outgoing email is often limited by your email service.

To use these commands, use your finger to hold down on any word or graphic element on the screen for one or two seconds, until the Select and Select All tabs appear above that content. To select a single word or select what content you want to copy or cut, tap on the Select tab. Or to select all the content on the screen, tap the Select All tab.

After text (or a graphic element, such as a photo) is selected, tap on the Cut tab to delete that selected content from the screen (if this option is available in the app you’re using), or tap the Copy tab to save the highlighted content in your iPhone or iPad’s virtual clipboard.

Now, move to where you want to paste that saved content. This can be in the same email or document, for example, or in another app altogether. Choose the location on the screen where you want to paste the content, and hold your finger on that location for two or three seconds. When the Paste tab appears, tap on it. The content you just copied is pasted into that location.

You can return to it later to modify and/or send it. To do this, from the main Inbox screen in Mail, tap on the left-pointing Mailboxes icon that looks like an arrow displayed at the upper-left corner of the screen. From the Mailboxes screen, scroll down to the Accounts heading and tap on the listing for the email account from which the email draft was composed.

When you see a list of folders related to that email account, tap on the Drafts folder. Tap on the appropriate listing to open that email message. You can now edit the message or send it.

On the iPhone, when viewing your Inbox and the listing of incoming (new) email messages, tap on any message listing to read that message in its entirety. When you do this, a new message screen appears. At the bottom of this screen is a series of command icons for managing that email.

On the iPad, the email message that’s highlighted in gray on the left side of the screen is the one that’s currently being displayed, in its entirety, on the right side of the screen. Tap on any email listing on the left side of the screen to view the entire message on the right side of the screen. Icons at the top of the screen are used for managing that email.

At the top of the Inbox message listing are two command icons, labeled Mailboxes (or the name of the mailbox you’re viewing) and Edit.

Just below the Inbox’s heading is a Search field. You might need to swipe your finger downward along the Inbox to reveal it. Tap on this Search field to make the virtual keyboard appear, enabling you to enter a search phrase and quickly find a particular email message. You can search the content of the Mail app using any keyword, a sender’s name, or an email subject, for example.

After you tap the Edit button, an empty circle icon appears to the left of each email message preview listing. To move or delete one or more messages from the current mailbox’s listing (which could be your Inbox, VIP, Archive, or Junk mailbox), tap on the empty circle icon for that message. A blue-and-white check mark fills the empty circle icon when you do this, and the Trash and Move command icons displayed at the bottom of the screen become active. For some types of email accounts, a Delete All button is also displayed, enabling you to select and delete all messages within that mailbox at the same time.

After you’ve selected one or more messages, tap the Trash button to quickly delete one or more messages simultaneously from the mailbox (which sends them to the Trash folder), or tap the Move button, and then select to which folder you want to move those email messages.

To exit this option without doing anything, tap on the Cancel button displayed at the top of the Inbox listing, to the right of the Inbox heading.

New to iOS 8 are additional (and customizable) command options that are displayed when you swipe from right to left across a message listing. By default, the Trash and More options are offered.

Tap on More to access a new pop-up menu (shown in Figure 11.10) that offers the Reply, Forward, Flag, Mark As Read, Move To Junk, Move Message, and Notify Me options.

In the upper-right corner of the email message is a blue Hide command. If you tap on this, some of the message header information will no longer be displayed. To make this information reappear, tap on the More option.

As you’re reading an email, tap on the flag icon to flag that message and mark it as urgent, or mark the email as unread. These options appear within a pop-up menu. When you flag a message, an orange flag (or an orange dot) becomes associated with that message, which is displayed in the message itself (to the right of the date and time), and in the inbox (mailbox) in which the message is stored. Plus, from your Inboxes menu, if you tap on the Flagged option, you can view a separate mailbox that contains only flagged (urgent) messages.

To add someone to your VIP List, as you’re reading an email from that person, tap on the From field (their name/email address). A Sender screen (iPhone) or window (iPad) appears. At the bottom of this window, tap on the Add To VIP button. This adds and keeps that sender on your custom VIP list until you manually remove them.

To later remove someone from your VIP list, read any of their email messages and again tap on the From field. When the Sender window appears, tap on the Remove From VIP button (which has replaced the Add To VIP button).

To open an attached file using another app, in the incoming email message, tap and hold down the attachment icon for one to three seconds. If the attachment is compatible with an app that’s installed on your iPhone or iPad, you’re given the option to transfer the file to that app or directly open or access the file using that app.

If an incoming email message contains an attachment that is not compatible or accessible from your iOS device, you can’t open or access it. In this case, you must access this content from your primary computer.

1. From the Inbox listing, tap the Edit button that’s located above the Inbox listing. Or, if you’re viewing an email message, swipe your finger from right to left across the message listing.

2. Tap the Move option. A menu that offers various folders and options available for that email account are displayed (shown in Figure 11.11).

3. Tap on the Move Message option, and then tap on the mailbox folder to which you want to move the message. The email message is moved to the folder you select.

When you tap on this icon, as you’re reading any email message, a menu offers the following three options: Reply, Forward, and Print. If the message you’re viewing has more than one recipient, an additional option, Reply All, appears.

To reply to the message you’re reading, tap on the Reply icon. An email message template appears on the screen that already contains the content of the message you’re replying to. Refer to the “Composing an Email Message” section for details on how to write and send an email message from the Mail app.

To forward the email you’re reading to another recipient, tap on the Forward icon. If an attachment is associated with the email, you’re asked, “Include attachments from original email?” with two options displayed on the screen, Include and Don’t Include. Tap on the appropriate response.

When you opt to forward an email, a new message template appears on the screen. However, the content of the message you’re forwarding appears in the body of the email message. Start the message-forwarding process by filling in the To field. You can also modify the Subject field (or leave the message’s original subject), and then add to the body of the email message with your own text. This text appears above the forwarded message’s content.

When you’re ready to forward the message, tap on the blue-and-white Send button that appears, or tap the Cancel button to abort the message-forwarding process.

If you have an AirPrint-compatible printer set up to work with your iOS device, you can tap the Print icon that appears when you tap the left-pointing curved-arrow icon as you’re reading an email.

As you’re reading email, if the text is difficult to see, you can automatically increase the size of all text displayed in the Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Messages, and Notes apps by adjusting the Accessibility option within Settings. To make this font size adjustment, launch Settings. Select the General option, and then tap on the Accessibility option. From the Accessibility menu screen, tap on the Large Text option.

As you’re reading emails, all of the touchscreen finger motions you’ve learned work on the section of the iOS device’s screen that’s displaying the actual email messages. You can scroll up or down and/or zoom in or out.

In addition to sending and receiving text-based messages, the Messages app supports the sending and receiving of photos, video messages and video clips, emoticons, and audio messages.

Most iPhone service plans have three components: voice, data, and text messaging. When you sign up with a wireless service, you can choose a paid text-messaging plan that allows for the sending or receiving of a predetermined number of text messages per month or pay extra for an unlimited text-messaging plan. If your plan has no text messaging component, you are charged for every text message you send or receive. These days, most shared family plans come with unlimited text messaging, however.

There are different types of text messages. There are text-only messages (SMS, or Short Message Service), as well as text messages that can contain a photo or video clip (MMS or Multimedia Messaging Service). These messages can be sent to one or more people simultaneously.

On the iPhone, the process of composing, reading, sending, and receiving text, audio, or video messages is done using the Messages app. The Messages app can be used with your cellular service provider’s text messaging service and/or Apple’s own iMessage service.

Unlike the text-messaging services available through wireless service providers, Apple’s iMessage service is free of charge, and it allows for an unlimited number of text messages to be sent and received. (When using iMessage via a Cellular data connection, this uses some of your monthly data allocation, if applicable.)

The service also taps into your iPhone or iPad’s other functions and allows for the easy sharing of photos, videos, locations, and contacts; plus, it works seamlessly with Notification Center.

iMessage enables you to participate in text-based, real-time conversations. When someone is actively typing a message to you during a conversation on iMessage, a bubble with three periods in it appears. You can view and respond to the message a fraction of a second after it is sent.

The first time you launch the Messages app to use it with the iMessage service, you’re instructed to set up a free account using your existing Apple ID. Or, instead of using your Apple ID, tap on the Create New Account option to create an account that’s linked to another existing email address.

To do this, you must complete the information requested from the New Account screen. When the requested New Account information is entered, tap on the Done icon in the upper-right corner of the New Account window. Keep in mind that if you simply enter your existing Apple ID/iCloud account information to set up your iMessage account, and then tap on the Sign In icon, the initial process for establishing an iMessage account is quick.

If you’re away from your iPhone or iPad when an incoming text message arrives, don’t worry. The Notification Center app can continuously monitor the Messages app and inform you of any missed messages in the Notification Center window.

Another convenient feature of iMessage is that you can begin a text-message–based conversation using your iPhone, for example, and switch to using your iPad or Mac to continue that conversation. This, however, is now possible with all types of text messaging via the Messages app if you turn on iOS 8’s Handoff feature.

Keep in mind, to initiate a new conversation with someone, you must know their cell phone number, Apple ID, or the email address they used to set up their iMessage account. However, after you know this, sending and receiving text messages with that person becomes a straightforward process. You can store the person’s account information in your Contacts database (which links to the Messages app).

On the iPad, the Messages screen is divided into two main sections. On the left is a listing of your previous conversations. When Messages is running, the right side of the iPad screen is the active conversation window. From here, you can initiate a new conversation or respond to incoming messages, one at a time.

To quickly search your Contacts database to find one or more recipients for your text messages, you can also tap on the blue-and-white plus icon in the To field as you’re composing a new message. A scrollable list of all contacts stored in Contacts displays, along with a Search field you can use to search your contacts database from within the Messages app.

After filling in the To field with one or more recipients, if you have the Subject feature turned on in Settings, tap on the optional Subject field to create a subject for your text message, and then tap on the blank field located to the left of the Send icon to begin typing your text message. On the iPhone, a blank field for the body of your text message is available, displayed to the left of the Send icon.

If you’re sending only text in your message, enter the text and then tap on the Send icon. Or to attach a photo or video clip to your outgoing text message, tap on the camera icon displayed to the left of the field where you’re typing the text message.

When you’re finished recording, lift your finger from the microphone icon. You can delete the audio message by now tapping on the “X” icon, or send your audio message to the intended recipient by tapping on the up-arrow icon or swiping your finger upward.

Using the Message app, it’s also possible to receive an incoming audio message. Instead of text being displayed, an audio message icon is displayed. Tap on it to play the message.

To record a video clip from within the Messages app, launch the app, choose a recipient, and then tap on the camera icon that’s displayed to the left of the text message composition field.

Select the Take Photo or Video option. When a modified version of the Camera app is displayed (shown in Figure 11.14), select the Video shooting mode and record your video. Alternatively, you can select the Photo shooting mode, snap a photo, and send that image to the intended recipient.

When someone sends you an incoming video message, tap on the message icon to play it. From within Settings, it’s possible to set up the Message app to automatically delete incoming video messages 2 minutes after they’ve been viewed. This enables you to conserve internal storage space on the device. Alternatively, you can select the Never option to store incoming video messages until you manually delete them.

To do this, launch Settings, tap on the Messages option, and then tap on the Expire option that’s found under the Video Messages heading. Tap on either the After 2 Minutes or Never option.

As the text-message–based conversation continues and eventually scrolls off the screen, use your finger to swipe upward or downward to view what’s already been said.

To delete or forward part of a text message, press and hold down that section of the message. A Copy and More option is displayed. Copy enables you to transfer the selected content to your device’s virtual clipboard and then copy it elsewhere. The More option enables you to select more of the text message conversation and then delete or forward it by tapping on the trashcan or Forward icon.

To delete entire conversations in the Messages app, press and hold one section of the message conversation, and then tap on the More option. Next, tap on the Delete All option to delete the entire conversation. Or from the Messages screen, which lists the individual conversations you’ve had or are engaged in, swipe your finger across a listing from right to left, and then tap on the Delete option.

To read the incoming message and enter into the conversation window and respond, tap on the incoming message listing. If you’re looking at the listing in the Notification Center window, for example, and you tap on it, the Messages app launches and the appropriate conversation window automatically opens.

After reading the incoming text message, use the virtual keyboard to type your response in the blank message field, and then tap the Send icon to send the response message.

From the Messages screen on the iPhone (or the Messages listing on the iPad that’s displayed on the left side of the screen), tap on the Edit icon, and then tap on the red-and-white icon that’s displayed next to a conversation to quickly delete the entire conversation.

To do this, from the conversation screen, tap on the Details option, and then turn on the Do Not Disturb feature. Turn off this virtual switch if you want to rejoin the conversation later.

To exit out of the conversation altogether, tap on the Details option and select the Leave This Conversation option.

Also from the Details screen, you can add new people to the group conversation by tapping on the Add Contact option.

If you want to make your whereabouts known to the conversation’s participant(s) on an ongoing basis, tap on the Share My Location option, and then choose the Share for One Hour, Share Until End of Day, or Share Indefinitely option by tapping on it.

Because sending and receiving photos and video clips as part of a Messages conversation has become popular, the Messages app now enables users to quickly see a thumbnail summary of all photos or video clips sent or received during each conversation. This eliminates the need to scroll upward on the screen to “rewind” a conversation to re-view a photo or video clip. To view the thumbnail summary, tap on the Details option and then scroll toward the bottom of the Details screen. Tap on any thumbnail to view a larger version of it. Press and hold your finger on the image to copy it into iOS 8’s virtual clipboard to paste it into another app or conversation in the Messages app.

In the Messages setup window, you can turn on or off the iMessage service altogether, plus make adjustments that are relevant to sending and receiving messages from your iOS mobile device. For example, by adjusting the virtual switch associated with the Send Read Receipts option to the on position, your contacts are notified when you’ve read their messages.

You can also set preferences for using text messages (SMS and MMS messages) versus iMessage.

If you turn on the virtual switch associated with the Character Count option, as you’re composing a new message, the number of characters it contains is automatically displayed.

If you want to block someone who has an entry in your Contacts database from being able to send you a message via the Message app, one way to do this is to launch Settings, tap on the Messages option, tap on the Blocked option, and then tap on the Add New option. Select the Contacts entry for the person or company you want to block. To unblock that person, return to the Blocked submenu screen in Settings and swipe your finger from right to left across the blocked person’s name.

To quickly search for something in any of your Messages app conversations, from the Messages screen that lists the conversations in which you’re currently participating, tap on the Search field that’s displayed at the top of the screen and enter a name, keyword, or phrase you’re looking for. You can also access iOS 8’s Spotlight Search feature, which includes the content of the Messages app within searches.

To temporarily silence all alerts related to the Messages app, activate the Do Not Disturb feature, which can be done from the Control Center or from within Settings. As soon as you turn off this feature, you’re alerted to all missed messages.