Apple's iMessage to Finally Get Major Update at WWDC?

[MacRumors]

Apple has put iMessage at the center of its promotional materials for WWDC next week, hinting that the company's popular messaging service could be seeing substantial upgrades.

iMessage appears to be a central theme in the marketing for this year's WWDC. For example, the placeholder for WWDC's live stream on YouTube, which is already live, features iMessage bubbles, Tapback, and iMessage's full-screen laser effect. Similarly, the Twitter hashflag to promote WWDC this year is an iMessage thumbs-up Tapback bubble.

The iMessage stickers and official WWDC attire and pins for this year also features iMessage bubbles, Tapback reactions, and emojis, but this is not necessarily uncommon for Apple's yearly conference-related outerwear.

Reliable Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman had previously reported that iOS 15 will feature improvements to iMessage, which appears to mirror the theme from Apple's promotional materials. Specifically, Gurman explained that there will be new options for automatic replies, statuses, and notifications:

There will also be an option to set automatic replies to messages depending on their status. That will be an improvement over the current auto-reply feature, which is only currently available while driving. Apple has added some unique notifications features such as Do Not Disturb and Sleep Mode, but this will mark the first time the company offers a systemwide feature for changing notifications depending on a user’s status.

The company is also working on upgrades to iMessage with the eventual goal of acting as more of a social network and better competing with Facebook Inc.'s WhatsApp. Those changes are still early in development and could come later, the people said.

The changes are reportedly in line with a broader strategy to make iMessage more of a social network that can better compete with WhatsApp.

Last year, MacRumors found evidence that Apple was internally testing the ability to retract sent messages, typing indicators in group chats, the ability to mark the last message of a conversation as unread after opening it, and an expansion of the "/me" command for sharing status updates, a feature that has been available on the Mac since the iChat days. Apple has also patented a number of as-yet unreleased iMessage features, such as the ability to edit sent messages.

The extent of the upgrades to iMessage at this year's WWDC are not yet clear, but given the wealth of evidence that iMessage has a significant role to play in this year's WWDC and a flurry of rumors around new messaging features, some kind of update seems to be highly likely.

WWDC 2021 begins next Monday, June 7 with a Keynote at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. Apple is expected to unveil major new software updates, including iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS 12, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15. See our WWDC 2021 roundup for more information.

Article Link: Apple's iMessage to Finally Get Major Update at WWDC?

 

[sniffies]

I would like to see "Disappear after first view"

 

[efktd]

What, new Memojis?

 

[AppleTO]

Now this would be good!

 

[zorinlynx]

iMessage will never truly take off as a "social network" until it's cross platform. Half of my friends use Android phones; we all use Telegram to chat because it's available on all our devices.

 

[kenni417]

clearly it’s AirPower

 

[Techwatcher]

Not sure why "finally" is the word being used. Not sure how many people have been on the edge of their seats waiting for an iMessage revamp.

There's many more pressing issues that need updates (like iPadOS) that people are concerned about compared to iMessage.

 

[TheSuperE]

Apple has put iMessage at the center of its promotional materials for WWDC next week, hinting that the company's popular messaging service could be seeing substantial upgrades.

iMessage appears to be a central theme in the marketing for this year's WWDC. For example, the placeholder for WWDC's live stream on YouTube, which is already live, features iMessage bubbles, Tapback, and iMessage's full-screen laser effect. Similarly, the Twitter hashflag to promote WWDC this year is an iMessage thumbs-up Tapback bubble.

The iMessage stickers and official WWDC attire and pins for this year also features iMessage bubbles, Tapback reactions, and emojis, but this is not necessarily uncommon for Apple's yearly conference-related outerwear.

Reliable Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman had previously reported that iOS 15 will feature improvements to iMessage, which appears to mirror the theme from Apple's promotional materials. Specifically, Gurman explained that there will be new options for automatic replies, statuses, and notifications:



The changes are reportedly in line with a broader strategy to make iMessage more of a social network that can better compete with WhatsApp.

Last year, MacRumors found evidence that Apple was internally testing the ability to retract sent messages, typing indicators in group chats, the ability to mark the last message of a conversation as unread after opening it, and an expansion of the "/me" command for sharing status updates, a feature that has been available on the Mac since the iChat days. Apple has also patented a number of as-yet unreleased iMessage features, such as the ability to edit sent messages.

The extent of the upgrades to iMessage at this year's WWDC are not yet clear, but given the wealth of evidence that iMessage has a significant role to play in this year's WWDC and a flurry of rumors around new messaging features, some kind of update seems to be highly likely.

WWDC 2021 begins next Monday, June 7 with a Keynote at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. Apple is expected to unveil major new software updates, including iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS 12, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15. See our WWDC 2021 roundup for more information.

Article Link: Apple's iMessage to Finally Get Major Update at WWDC?

Suprise me with a completely new way to communicate that combines all the platforms out there and the ability to use my cameras and emotional well being through sensors in the watch…. Allow people to FEEL the written word. Through haptic feedback of the device, like a PS5 controller on an Apple bender.

 

[SuperCachetes]

Yeah, I don't need iMessage to do "new" things. I need it to do basic things better... Like reliably sending mixed iMessage/SMS/MMS messages to groups.

 

[cmaier]

I would hope they’d also put a lot of effort into making Facetime more of a zoom competitor.

 

[DinkThifferent]

Would love to see like an Apple Exclusive Photo Sharing with Friends feature.

No Companies, No Likes, No Ads, No Filters. Just sharing photos on a chronological photo wall.

I like seeing pictures from friends, but i hate Facebook. So I don't have Instagram or Facebook.

 

[SDJim]

The changes are reportedly in line with a broader strategy to make iMessage more of a social network that can better compete with WhatsApp.

This would mean multi-platform support for iMessage! I will never use an Android phone in my life, but I have 2 holdouts in my family and family chats would be SO MUCH BETTER with iMessage!!!

 

[tkermit]

a broader strategy to make iMessage more of a social network

Good luck with that (again).

 

[_Spinn_]

I feel like I'm in the minority but I actually like iMessage and use it all the time for my iOS family members and Android friends. My friends and I only use SMS/MMS because we could never settle on another app to use (I want Signal and they want Facebook Messenger).

 

[Naraxus]

This hints at absolutely nothing

 

[d686546s]

Meanwhile here in Europe a critical mass of people has moved to WhatsApp and other competitors. I'd love to use iMessage more, but frankly too many of my friends and family have Android phones and I'm not going to fiddle around with multiple platforms and play the continuous guessing game whether or not person X has an iPhone.

I make one exception to the no fiddling rule and that's increasingly trying to replace WhatsApp with Signal, but alas, both are cross-platform.

Above all, I want my default messenger to reach as many people as possible and iMessage with its iOS limitation is just not cutting it.

 

[jz0309]

I would hope they’d also put a lot of effort into making Facetime more of a zoom competitor.

Screen sharing would be a nice first step

 

[alexandr]

I would hope they’d also put a lot of effort into making Facetime more of a zoom competitor.

unfortunately, i think they missed that opportunity...

 

[jz0309]

If you were able to use iMessage to communicate with WhatsApp and the likes, that would be cool, really doubt that will be the case… and for me, I hope it’s not going to become a “social network like” app and or service

 

[newyorksole]

You know what I REALLY hate about iMessage? When I scroll up in a conversation and am typing my reply from that spot, if the person I'm typing to sends a new message it automatically jumps down to that.

I know this has changed with the ability to reply to a specific message, but if there are multiple messages I'm looking at / responding to, I want to view them and not be forced to jump down to the newest message.

 

[edgonzalez32]

Not entirely related to messages, but I would love for more improvements to DND as a whole. Similar to how Android handles it. Like having specific message threads override DND would be amazing.

 

[edgonzalez32]

If you were able to use iMessage to communicate with WhatsApp and the likes, that would be cool, really doubt that will be the case… and for me, I hope it’s not going to become a “social network like” app and or service

The only universal standard that Apple would support is RCS. Which, when it eventually replaces SMS, they'll have no choice but to.

 

[edgonzalez32]

You know what I REALLY hate about iMessage? When I scroll up in a conversation and am typing my reply from that spot, if the person I'm typing to sends a new message it automatically jumps down to that.

I know this has changed with the ability to reply to a specific message, but if there are multiple messages I'm looking at / responding to, I want to view them and not be forced to jump down to the newest message.

That **** DRIVES me crazy.

 

[antnythr]

iMessage is essentially a second class citizen on my phone as it’s limited by only being available on iPhone devices. It works fine for the one group chat I have with people that all have iPhones, but every other group requires either WhatsApp, Signal, or Telegram.

iMessage definitely needs a few improvements in addition to being cross platform such as:

1. Opening up at a threads last viewed message. Having to scroll up to find wherever the last viewed message is annoying.

2. Not jumping to someone’s new message if you’re currently reading an older message. Just show a jump marker with the number of new messages

3. Ability to set time limited / disappearing messages

4. Ability to delete/retract previously sent messages from all devices that have received it.

 

[tkermit]

Here's an idea for something to improve instead of adding social media crap: https://mjtsai.com/blog/2021/05/31/the-difficulty-of-accessing-old-imessages/