If you're an Apple user,
this is a big deal. Messages is the most frequently used app in iOS, and
is how most users share texts, photos and videos with each other.
With iOS 8,
coming this fall, Apple is borrowing features from popular messaging
platforms like Snapchat and WhatsApp while unveiling some new tricks of
its own.
Here's a quick look at the new messaging features announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference...
Audio and video messages
The text window in the
next version of iMessage will contain a little microphone button. Users
hold a finger down on the button, record a short audio or video message,
and send it with the swipe of a finger, all without leaving the app.
In this way, Apple is
taking a page from WhatsApp, which also allows audio and video messages.
Facebook bought that startup, which has a huge user base overseas, in
February for $19 billion.
Audio files will appear
in your Messages stream as jagged lines. Simply tap on them to listen to
the message. Apple did not say Monday whether there will be a limit on
the length of the messages.
Self-destructing messages
Photo and video messages
that disappear after a few seconds have been popularized by Snapchat,
the mobile messaging app that reportedly spurned multibillion takeover
offers from Facebook and Google last year.
This ephemeral format
has been especially popular with teens and young adults who like to
exchange silly or racy messages without fear they'll be haunted by them
later.
Now Apple is getting
into the game. Audio and video messages within iOS 8 will automatically
vanish within a few minutes unless you
adjust your settings.
"You don't want to have
to clean these up. Audio and video messages can take up space," said
Greg Joswiak, head of iOS product marketing. "So they're set to
self-destruct unless you choose to keep them."
Do not disturb
Sure, group messaging threads among friends can be fun. But sometimes all the back-and-forth chatter gets out of hand.
This feature lets you mute a thread for a while while reserving the option to rejoin the conversation later.
If you've ever been on
one of those noisy threads that just keeps buzzing in your pocket, now
you will be able to choose when to leave.
Lock-screen functions
If you're in a hurry,
responding to a message on an iPhone can be a little cumbersome: You
have to punch in your passcode and then hit the Messages icon just to
get started.
With iOS 8, users can
listen and respond to audio messages without leaving the lock screen --
just by holding the phone to their ear. The phone detects when it's next
to your face, plays the message and lets you record a brief response.
Lower the phone, and the message is sent automatically.
Other stuff
If your contacts choose to share them, their locations will pop up in group-messaging threads.
For the first time, users will be able to add or delete someone in the middle of a group-messaging thread.
And message attachments - images and videos mostly - will be collected in one place so you
don't have to scroll back through longstanding threads to find them.
Source: CNN Tech
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