Hands-On With Digital Touch, Bubble Effects, Apps and More in iOS 10's Messages

[Soccertess]

You're right, they're only processing 200,000 iMessages per second - it's practically like nobody is using the service at all.

Yup, and how many are wechat, and what'sapp, kik, and sms? With the exception of SMS, these all came to existence because there was a HUGE demand for a cross plateform solution.

WITH apple's market share not growing, it only makes increasing demand for these cross plateform apps. Personally, I don't like constantly switching messaging apps. I'm just stating reality that these messagings apps filled a gap, and now they are being used over Apple's messaging app. I know for me I use them over imessages.

 

[hllywluis]

Might I be the only millennial who doesn't use iMessage or even sends text messages, for that matter?

 

[malkgray]

I just had to respond to all the old grey-haired fogies here all worried about their beloved message app. You CAN turn it all off. Turn off iMessage and it all goes away except basic SMS. You'll still see all the features and you'll even be able to use them, but you won't be able to send them (they'll get marked as failed to send) and you certainly won't be able to receive them. It's a bit rough around the edges about that at the moment but they'll polish it up. So relax, OMG.

I had iMessage off ever since its inception because of spam problems, but now I want to leave it on (and hope like heck the spam doesn't start back up) because these new features are really fun! I really like the ability to draw on images and video. I like it A LOT. And people who can't type should see some serious gains in productivity with the ability to send handwritten messages. It even makes your handwriting prettier than it should be.

 

[doctor-don]

Never used that Messages app.
Probably never will.
I love my 2008 MacPro3,1, too. Not looking forward to having to replace it.

 

[doelcm82]

A text messaging app with features stuck in the apple universe is pretty much missing the whole point.

Why would anyone using snapchat with their friends switch over to this?

I can't think of a reason to switch from snapchat. But I use iMessage, so your problems are not relevant.

 

[orioncrystalice]

Opened thread. Saw predictable offhand demeaning language of females and young people utilized as method by which to bash new features on very first page. Satisfied.

 

[cmichaelb]

Hitler made a lot of money, what's your point? (I could've said Bill Gates, but Godwin's law.)
They are no longer competing, because now iMessage is the same bloated mess, except it doesn't run on Android.
No. And since when do young people care about Mickey Mouse? This is an old mans idea of what young people might want. Balloons and Firework? Gosh!

No, they all probably have kids and see what the young ones do. I see this as direct play to younger ( tweets to 20 somethings ) iPhone users and China. Plus they see the popularity of Snapchat, Whatsapp, etc. and want to keep users on Apple's platform.

 

[timeconsumer]

Well, what options are there for someone who keeps on calling and/or being annoying on calls in one way or another, or forwarding every chain email, or anything like that? Seems like the same type of "controls" of that essentially.

For somebody who keeps on calling I can set DND or give them a silent ring tone.
Being annoying on calls, I can excuse myself from the conversation and disconnect the call.
Forwarding every chain email, I can filter their messages into their own folder and go through them at my convenience.

If somebody is constantly using bubble effects to "slam" or "confetti" the background, I cannot configure it to ignore that. My only options at this point are to block those people or to disable iMessage completely and just use SMS.

I'm not complaining about the features, in fact I think it's great for people who want them and will use them. And, as I've said in other posts I've made Apple cannot ignore this market. Just give me the option to disable these new features so iMessage will be exactly the same as it is today.

 

[C DM]

For somebody who keeps on calling I can set DND or give them a silent ring tone.
Being annoying on calls, I can excuse myself from the conversation and disconnect the call.
Forwarding every chain email, I can filter their messages into their own folder and go through them at my convenience.

If somebody is constantly using bubble effects to "slam" or "confetti" the background, I cannot configure it to ignore that. My only options at this point are to block those people or to disable iMessage completely and just use SMS.

I'm not complaining about the features, in fact I think it's great for people who want them and will use them. And, as I've said in other posts I've made Apple cannot ignore this market. Just give me the option to disable these new features so iMessage will be exactly the same as it is today.

Well, there's DND for message conversations. There is a way to assign a silent tone for someone's texts. There's a way to leave message conversations. There's a way to block. Seems like more or less the same kinds of options are available.
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No, they all probably have kids and see what the young ones do. I see this as direct play to younger ( tweets to 20 somethings ) iPhone users and China. Plus they see the popularity of Snapchat, Whatsapp, etc. and want to keep users on Apple's platform.

With plenty of older people and those outside of Asia using things like that these days as well.
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Pretty much all of this stuff is to sell more phones in China. And to the kids.

And to a ton of other people who feel like using things like that and are already doing it in other messengers.

 

[Bawstun]

They've officially run out of ideas.

 

[nurban1992]

These new features are really awesome! They make my phone run really hot and it can crash sometimes. Maybe there should be a setting to remove some of these features as to not bloat the app.

activationudid.com get your free copy of iOS 10 beta today for free!

Do not forget that this is the first of many betas to come that will progressively improve and polish the OS before public release. Between now and then, Apple will surely improve the way the system handles these new features in messages, as well as every other new feature that was in introduced. Come September, I highly doubt they will ship software that crashes and overheats the phone. It will be better.

Also, you need to think about the demographic that Apple needs to aim for. There are many young teenagers who own iPhones who love features that allow them to get colorful or expressive with their messages. The new generation loves to share everything with everyone, and they have naturally gravitated towards apps that allow them to do it in creative or fun ways. This is largely why Snapchat is such a popular social medium for millennials.

I'm not sure of your age, but this messages app clearly caters to people who are younger, eccentric, and creative. All the teen girls who text their girlfriends saying "OMG look at this video Stacey posted to Facebook last night!" will probably love using the "loud" or "slam" bubble effect, because they will recognize that it more accurately expressed the emphasis of what how they're trying to convey their tone. They also love using emojis, too, which explains why they emphasized expression via emoji in this new app. I'd say give it a month or two after release for the younger users to get comfortable with the idea of using these and it'll become mainstream.

Long story short: people prefer to message over call. The more animated and expressive you can be over message, the closer we'll come to a culture that will all but eliminate calling all together.

Just because it's not for you doesn't mean it's not going to get its share of use. All it takes is one viral meme/video/use-case for these bubble effects to become a hotly used feature amongst millions of iPhone users.

 

[Zirel]

As someone who works with teenagers, I can say that while you may think these features are dumb, apple knows exactly what they're doing... They're not going after traditional "power users" here but instead the huge market of snapchat-using iPhone owners who will eat these features up.

This, besides, what power users really want?

 

[jezbd1997]

I was really looking forward to iMessage for Android and sending money via Apple Pay as rumored, but got 3x bigger emojis

If they added iMessage to android it would be as bad as them adding Apple Music to android

 

[timeconsumer]

Well, there's DND for message conversations. There is a way to assign a silent tone for someone's texts. There's a way to leave message conversations. There's a way to block. Seems like more or less the same kinds of options are available..

DND would not give me notifications correct? But as soon as I opened the message I would get the slam and confetti animation, right? So that wouldn't solve the issue of not wanting to receive those while still receiving messages from that person.

 

[MarkusL]

Emoji in the Messages app are now three times larger when sent alone, and there's a new predictive Emoji feature that will automatically suggest words that can be replaced with emoji symbols. An invisible ink feature lets you send messages that stay hidden until a finger slides over them, and there's a tool for sending handwritten notes to friends.

Finally some real pro features for the iPad Pro.

 

[C DM]

DND would not give me notifications correct? But as soon as I opened the message I would get the slam and confetti animation, right? So that wouldn't solve the issue of not wanting to receive those while still receiving messages from that person.

Well, again, that would be the comparison to phone calls that was being made. DND or leaving the call wouldn't get you into the call and you would avoid an annoying person like that. As you mentioned those would be the solutions you could take for calls. But should you answer the call or go into a conversation where that person is present or listen to a voicemail that that person left then you'd be exposed to the annoyances from that person. It's basically a similar type of issue.

 

[timeconsumer]

Well, again, that would be the comparison to phone calls that was being made. DND or leaving the call wouldn't get you into the call and you would avoid an annoying person like that. As you mentioned those would be the solutions you could take for calls. But should you answer the call or go into a conversation where that person is present or listen to a voicemail that that person left then you'd be exposed to the annoyances from that person. It's basically a similar type of issue.

Well in iOS 10 I don't necessarily have to listen to the voicemail thanks to the new transcription feature, but I understand your point. I guess I'm not necessarily against the features, I am just merely asking for a way to toggle the ability to receive those.

 

[C DM]

Well in iOS 10 I don't necessarily have to listen to the voicemail thanks to the new transcription feature, but I understand your point. I guess I'm not necessarily against the features, I am just merely asking for a way to toggle the ability to receive those.

It would be nice if such additional controls would be made available. But given how it's similar to calls or emails in that sense, as we just discussed, one can see that it might not be something that would be offered. I'm not sure if other messengers that offer similar features offer such controls either.

 

[shuka.margolin]

iMessages is useless because it only works between apple users. I hardly use imessages exactly because of that. Even iPhone users prefer WhatsApp because their contacts are also not all on iPhones. In a world were 85% of smartphones are android based it is silly to say that imessages is the most used application on the iPhone. This is a very narrow view which perhaps is somewhat correct in the USA but completely wrong elsewhere. The king is WhatsApp because it works for all smartphones.

 

[navier]

Three things:

So much time wasted in development...

Spam professionals now will be even more annoying (yes you will be able to block telephone numbers, but you'll have to create these filters activelly and after you've received the Spam-SMS)

I can't wait to see a 20 minutes demonstration of the emojis beiing displayed on the gimmicky OLED strip on new MacBook Pros

 

[C DM]

iMessages is useless because it only works between apple users. I hardly use imessages exactly because of that. Even iPhone users prefer WhatsApp because their contacts are also not all on iPhones. In a world were 85% of smartphones are android based it is silly to say that imessages is the most used application on the iPhone. This is a very narrow view which perhaps is somewhat correct in the USA but completely wrong elsewhere. The king is WhatsApp because it works for all smartphones.

So it's not useless for a lot of people.
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Three things:

So much time wasted in development...

Spam professionals now will be even more annoying (yes you will be able to block telephone numbers, but you'll have to create these filters activelly and after you've received the Spam-SMS)

I can't wait to see a 20 minutes demonstration of the emojis beiing displayed on the gimmicky OLED strip on new MacBook Pros

Yeah, basically a non-issue issue.

 

[BvizioN]

I just don't care about emojis and all kinds of bobbles and jingles on my messages. Has everyone become a little girl all of a sudden?

It is astonishing how people like you think the entire world share the same preference. Nothing have changed! Not everyone have become a little girl and not every little girl have become grumpy old man/woman! The world is same as it was yesterday. It is just Apple realizing that their phones are being used by a vast number of people with different age/gender/preferences etc, so is adding more features to stock apps. I personally don't like it and wish there was an option to set a basic mode, but hey.... it is a big world out there and I don't expect everyone to have my preferences. I think Apple is heading on the right direction with this.

 

[Abazigal]

I just don't care about emojis and all kinds of bobbles and jingles on my messages. Has everyone become a little girl all of a sudden?

Maybe it's more that the whole world has moved forward, while you are the one still stuck in the past.

 

[Mums]

This mentality is why the guy who runs snapchat is rolling in mountains of money while you're here complaining about how dumb his type of product is.

Yeah it's all about money - isn't it kaibelf? Typical clueless response from you.

 

[citysnaps]

iMessages is useless because it only works between apple users. I hardly use imessages exactly because of that. Even iPhone users prefer WhatsApp because their contacts are also not all on iPhones. In a world were 85% of smartphones are android based it is silly to say that imessages is the most used application on the iPhone. This is a very narrow view which perhaps is somewhat correct in the USA but completely wrong elsewhere. The king is WhatsApp because it works for all smartphones.

Useless? Like many iPhone users, I use iMessage many times a day, including messaging the couple of Android phone friends of mine. Three years ago Apple reported delivering over 2 billion iMessages per day. I suspect that number is substantially higher today with twice the number of iOS users since then and more activity.

So how could iMessage be useless if most everyone who has an iPhone uses it, and it's iOS's most used app?