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Exclusive: iOS 18 to Add Text Effects to iMessage

jonblatho said:
Bold and italic would be nice, but you probably won’t get underline because underlining non-links is discouraged for accessibility reasons.
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I agree, but sensible design has gone out the window years ago. Our best hope is that Apple will have a toggle in Messages settings to display plain text only.
 
In my opinion this is a complete waste of developer resources, but I felt the same about Animojis and the entire emoji Unicode standard.

The majority of people like such distractions and get a kick out of forgetting how to write in a formal language. Cosplay and Anime are wildly popular. LARPing is a thing.

A large portion of people have truly embraced their inner Narcissus with Social Media. Everyone desires visibility and most are trying to fill a void. I just want a tool with more useful value not an escape.

My stock thanks the escapees of life for each one of their need for fame or infamy.
 
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scorpio vega said:
It’s a text message not a word document.

Anyway, as usual, I still don’t care about rcs and hope these features are iMessage only.
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That’s a dumb take. Those formatting options are super useful for adding emphasis, clarification, titles and attribution, and other uses. Just because you lack the imagination or understanding of language to see the usefulness of this feature that most other message apps already have, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a useful feature to lots of folks. Maybe instead, next time ask why other people might find that useful when they make a suggestion before immediately jumping in to crap on it.

  1. "I never said she stole my money." (Someone else said it)
  2. "I never said she stole my money." (Implies that she may have taken something else)
  3. "I never said she stole my money." (Implies that she borrowed it or received it in a different way)
  4. "I never said she stole my money." (Implies that someone else stole it)
  5. "I never said she stole my money." (Categorical denial you said that)
  6. "I never said she stole my money." (Implies she stole someone else’s money)
  7. "I never said she stole my money." (You didn’t say it, but you aren’t denying it)
It is understandable that in its infancy, messaging would be oversimplification. But its been 38 years since SMS was invented. It’s long overdue that messaging adapted to us, not us to it.
 
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MacRumors said:
Apple plans to add a new text effects feature to the Messages app on iOS 18, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
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Damn, Tim Cook is so clueless! Instead of adding a new text effects feature to the Messages app on iOS 18, how about instead having RCS messages be a color that is not green or blue? Rumor has it that RCS messages will be green, just like SMS messages, while iMessages will be blue. Is it so hard for Clueless Cook to understand that if RCS messages are green, it will be hard to tell which messages are RCS and which messages are SMS?

This would've never happened if Scott Forstall was still in charge of iOS. Unlike Clueless Cook, Forstall actually cared about making GUIs appear logical and as user-friendly as possible. Bring back Forstall!
 
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ok. can we also get a "forever edit button"? why the measly 15 minutes? please allow us to edit messages / posts at any time. better for us to be able to maintain our digital footprint how we see fit, instead of "setting everything in stone" after 15 minutes.
 
nymphe said:
It is quite useful though. I think all of the remaining messengers have this feature.

Anyway as living someone in EU, I don’t care at all what kind of features apple can add to imesage.
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"living in the EU..." most of the forced changes have come from the EU directive... hahaha.

perhaps the EU law makers pretend to care more than the actual EU users :)
and all the fines and drama are just a money making racket?
 
scorpio vega said:
It’s a text message not a word document.

Anyway, as usual, I still don’t care about rcs and hope these features are iMessage only.
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Ok? I didn’t say I wanted it because I’m writing novels for messages to everyone I text...

But you mean to tell me that in all your years of texting as a pillar of modern communication that you’ve never once found yourself needing to call particular attention or emphasis to a word or words? The problem with communicating via written language is as old as all of recorded human history, which is that it’s significantly more of a challenge to convey things like inflection, tone of voice, etc to whomever reads it.
 
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Bstzbgs said:
That’s a dumb take. Those formatting options are super useful for adding emphasis, clarification, titles and attribution, and other uses. Just because you lack the imagination or understanding of language to see the usefulness of this feature that most other message apps already have, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a useful feature to lots of folks. Maybe instead, next time ask why other people might find that useful when they make a suggestion before immediately jumping in to crap on it.

  1. "I never said she stole my money." (Someone else said it)
  2. "I never said she stole my money." (Implies that she may have taken something else)
  3. "I never said she stole my money." (Implies that she borrowed it or received it in a different way)
  4. "I never said she stole my money." (Implies that someone else stole it)
  5. "I never said she stole my money." (Categorical denial you said that)
  6. "I never said she stole my money." (Implies she stole someone else’s money)
  7. "I never said she stole my money." (You didn’t say it, but you aren’t denying it)
It is understandable that in its infancy, messaging would be oversimplification. But it’s been 38 years since SMS was invented. It’s long overdue that messaging adapted to us, not us to it.
Click to expand...
Exactly! Couldn’t have said it better myself. And how much you want to bet this guy uses that feature within a month tops if it were to be added lol
 
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MacRumors said:
Our hope is that Apple will also add bold, italics, and underline formatting options alongside the text effects, but we have not confirmed that possibility
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Still amazes me that the Messages app is so popular in the US when it’s so behind other apps. I guess it’s just snobbery/FOMO.
 
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Apple sliding further down the slide... Shame really - they used to be such a good company.
 
wbeasley said:
maybe blame your carrier or coverage?
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Apple's APIs should know if the message was delivered correctly, but they don't. No network is completely reliable and Apple assuming that the network always works correctly is simply engineering stuck in the 1990s.
 
Whoop de frickin' do....

But hopefully they won't forget to release more emojis, right? /sarc

It's like they're shoving anything moderately 'cool' or 'different' into their products and hoping it'll distract people from their lack of real innovation?
 
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nt5672 said:
Apple's APIs should know if the message was delivered correctly, but they don't. No network is completely reliable and Apple assuming that the network always works correctly is simply engineering stuck in the 1990s.
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Or the Carrier doesn't tell them?

I do get a Message Not Delivered notification in very rare circumstances. So you can retry then.
Do you not get that?
 
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Would like see synergy like the palm pre message app had.

Also. Auto phone call recording. I’d throw this iPhone away and buy another in a heartbeat even if that was iPhone 16 only.

But no we text effects. More emojis. Sigh.
 
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applefan8254 said:
ok. can we also get a "forever edit button"? why the measly 15 minutes? please allow us to edit messages / posts at any time. better for us to be able to maintain our digital footprint how we see fit, instead of "setting everything in stone" after 15 minutes.
Click to expand...
The reason for that is google is implementing it into RCS messages so they are taking the same idea to match up
 
wbeasley said:
Or the Carrier doesn't tell them?

I do get a Message Not Delivered notification in very rare circumstances. So you can retry then.
Do you not get that?
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It should not matter about the carrier. Apple APIs between devices should detect failure at a higher level than the carrier.

For example:
1. Apple server sends message or notification.
2. Apple server waits for acknowledgment from the user device of successful message transmission.
3. After some time, with no acknowledgement, Apple server sends message or notification again.
4. Rinse and repeat a few times, then notify user via an alternate channel like email. Its not like Apple's walled garden does not know who the user is.

For devices replace the above "Apple server" with "Apple device".

The API is not difficult, but Apple would rather lose the message than report an error. That type of API design started with Jobs and his "it just works" philosophy and is deeply rooted in Apple's software. Anyone that studies the APIs can see it.
 
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