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Apple Releases iOS 11.4 With Messages in iCloud and AirPlay 2
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Relying on Apple’s syncing is asking for trouble. I have so many little problems with their various services and syncing. It’s such a core part of so many things it is shocking how bad it can be.
Your understanding of iMessages (both old and new) is flawed.
Each of your devices has a public and private key pair generated when you enable iMessages. You send the public keys to Apple.
When you send an iMessage it really gets sent to Apple. You never were sending it directly to the user. In the old iMessages Apple then sends a copy to every device it has a public key for. It then deletes the message.
In the new iMessages they simply stopped deleting the message.
Both old and new iMessages have the same weakness - there is nothing stopping Apple from adding another public key to the list of receivers. Except, of course, for your trust in Apple.
I think it's less about saving local storage in this case and more about preserving them in the event of something happening to your device and you weren't backing it up. This happens to many people either from a lack of know how, running out of space in iCloud, or a combination of the two. The more stuff that syncs to iCloud independent of your device backup, the better.
Also, if your backup ever becomes corrupted and you need to restore/set up as new, you're now basically able to get back everything that's important to 99% of users (messages, iCloud Photo Library, contacts, calendar events, etc) without even needing to restore a backup. Just sign in with your Apple ID and you have all of that back.
I believe what the deal is is that messages are now stored in iCloud NOT the device itself. So thats how it saves saves space on the device.
It doesn't make it possible to play to 2 speakers via AirPlay 2 (expresses or my pioneer stereo) from neither my iPad or iPhone with iOS 11.4. Someone stated that it should in one of the threads abt 11.4. So not.
I don't have 2 Homepods to check, neither will I have later either.
Not that I had expected it...
I don't have 2 Homepods to check, neither will I have later either.
Not that I had expected it...
Do speakers connected with Airport Express show up in the Home App?
I just realised that you need to use two factor authentication to use Messages in the Cloud... I really don’t want to use that but have been looking forward to using messages in the cloud. Would it work to turn on 2 factor and enable messages in the cloud and then then turn off 2 step?
It’s irritating that airplay 1 is able to play to multiple devices on macOS, but with airplay 2 I can’t send to multiple airplay 1 devices from my iPhone. Some of us have $100+ speakers that are a few years old and probably won’t be updated for airplay 2 *cough*iHome*cough*.
It’s not a huge deal since I usually stream from my Mac, but it’s just a money grab.
It’s not a huge deal since I usually stream from my Mac, but it’s just a money grab.
Very interested to know the answer to this. I have the same conversation threads across iPhone, iPad and Mac all of which have different content (when thread started and some messages that didn't arrive on all devices) - what will happen when I sync - should I delete all threads from iPad and Mac so the 'master' threads from my phone are uploaded to iCloud?
No.
Probably just smart speakers.
But it seems like the lastest Express had shown up for some google told me
But my expresses are the ancient ones
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I don’t think my understanding of the old way was flawed. Messages are encrypted end to end. The sender creates one message per device the recipient uses. It suffers from a man in the middle weakness. So you are right you have to trust Apple. If they inserted a bogus Apple or NSA device as a recipient I’d never know.
I don’t think the new way is as simple as just deleting the encrypted message stored in Apple’s servers. If that were the case then you couldn’t get old messages for a new device since messages are created and encrypted when sent for each device. The sender wouldn’t have knowledge of an iMessage device that doesn’t yet exist.
I’ve had a lot of problems too but things have been getting better. My biggest complaint is Apple’s idiotic policy of not informing the user of changes made. It’s just “magical”. Until it’s not. Would it be so hard to provide a user-friendly sync log? When you’re dealing with a huge amount of data, be it music files, pictures, or even contacts, it’s possible to not even realize that a record was acted upon until long after a change was made.
The lack of logging is what contributes to my distrust of Apple sync. More than a year ago my iCloud Photo Library was hosed and I’ve had multiple sync issues with iCloud music library. Recently things seem to be working fine but I still have trust issues. I want an iCloud log (on each device) to review.
Holy moly how have you managed to fill up 256 GB? I’m impressed!
Ok let's say I have 2 AirPort Express in two separate rooms. Can I stream music to both devices simultaneously? Or have sort of a stereo sound? I updated to iOS 11.4 and I can't select both yet.
Yes - I actually went to the Home App and Updated my Homepods to the new Update and now Airplay 2 works flawlessly!!!
I started to not even bother downloading the final release versions and just keep the whatever the most recent beta is. I haven’t found the differences to be outstanding in general. Unless I hear of any major fixes it’s just become more of a hassle to remove profiles only to reinstall it again a week later when the next beta comes out.
I certainly understand why people do though.
Still don't know how Messages in iCloud works. I understand that instead of device holding the messages that it starts in you iCloud account and then sync's to your device. Very cool. So, if I delete a message deletes across the all devices and icloud. It still looks like all my messages are still accessible on the device. So how does this save space on your device?
I also went on my iCloud account and darn it, there was no an iMessage icon on the iCloud web account.
I also went on my iCloud account and darn it, there was no an iMessage icon on the iCloud web account.
Apple today released iOS 11.4, the fourteenth update to the iOS 11 operating system that was first introduced last September. iOS 11.4 comes a month after the release of iOS 11.3.1, an update that introduced a bug fix for a display repair issue.
iOS 11.4 is available on all eligible devices over-the-air in the Settings app. To access the update, go to Settings --> General --> Software Update. Eligible devices include the iPhone 5s and later, the iPad mini 2 and later, the iPad Air and later, and the 6th-generation iPod touch.
iOS 11.4 is an audio-focused update, introducing support for multi-room audio through a new protocol that supports multi-room audio on all AirPlay 2 enabled devices.
Right now, AirPlay 2-compatible devices include the Apple TV and the HomePod, but in the future, AirPlay 2 will be available on third-party speakers from manufacturers like Bang & Olufsen, Bluesound, Bose, Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Libratone, Marantz, Marshall, Naim, Pioneer and Sonos.
With AirPlay 2, you can play the same song on multiple speakers throughout the house, move music from one room to another, or play music in any room from any room using an iOS device, HomePod, Apple TV, or Siri voice commands. AirPlay 2 devices are now displayed in the Apple Home app as AirPlay 2 is integrated with HomeKit.
Using AirPlay 2, you can control where music is playing through the Control Center or within apps on an iOS device or ask Siri to play music in any room (or multiple rooms) with an AirPlay 2-enabled device.
HomePod is also gaining support for stereo pairing, which is designed to let two HomePods work in unison.
The iOS 11.4 update also introduces Messages in iCloud, a feature that has been in the works for several months and was first promised as an iOS 11 feature in June of 2017. Messages in iCloud is designed to store your iMessages in iCloud rather than on each individual device, allowing for improved syncing capabilities.
At the current time, incoming iMessages are sent to all of the devices where you're signed in to your Apple ID, but there is no true cross-device syncing. Messages in iCloud will let you download all of your iMessages on new devices, and a message deleted on one device will remove it from all devices, which is not the case right now.
Older messages and attachments are also stored in iCloud rather than on device, saving valuable storage space across all of your Macs, iPhones, and iPads.
For the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, there is a new (PRODUCT)RED wallpaper available, which is not available on iPhone X, and in betas, the iOS 11.4 update included USB Restricted Mode, which may have made it into release.
USB Restricted Mode introduces a week-long expiration date on access to the Lightning port on iOS devices if your phone has not been unlocked, a feature that limits law enforcement access to the iPhone and the iPad using tools like the GrayKey box.
In addition to these features, iOS 11.4 also includes several bug fixes, as outlined in Apple's release notes. Full release notes are below:
iOS 11.4 may be one of the final updates to the iOS 11 operating system, which will be followed by iOS 12. Apple will unveil iOS 12 at the Worldwide Developers Conference next week.
Article Link: Apple Releases iOS 11.4 With Messages in iCloud and AirPlay 2
