Four notable additions to the Messages app in iOS 8

iOS 8 brought with it so many changes that Apple felt the need to include a Tips app just to highlight them all. No doubt the company realized how complex its operating system had become and new things would be quite difficult to learn all at once. In iOS 8, the Health app has gotten a lot of attention as has the Continuity and Transfer feature, but this latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system brought some great and very welcome changes to the Messages app and here are all four.

Four notable additions to the Messages app in iOS 8

fast type

You’ll hear this feature commonly known as predictive text, which is what it’s called on the Android platform. Quick Type is available for all text input fields that include the Messages app. It works exceptionally well. Not only does it do a great job of predicting what word you’re trying to type, but it also guesses what word you might type next based on the previous word you entered. The feature is pretty cool considering it’s new.

self-destructive messages

Snapchat made self-destructing messages quite popular and the Messages app now has a somewhat similar feature that allows you to automatically delete messages that are older than 30 days or a year. It’s not meant to be used in the same way as Snapchat, since auto-delete isn’t customizable or immediate, but it will help keep your message history short.

Audio and video messages

The feature was there before, but you had to switch to the camera app. You couldn’t actually send the video message from the Messages app. The best part is that audio and video messages have a separate self-destruct setting that destroys messages after two minutes (or never). Again, the settings are super restrictive by having only those two options. One is pretty immediate and the other makes you keep them forever. This requires a jailbreak tweak.

mute conversations

I was really hoping for something like this since texting can be annoying or just the people sending it can be annoying. Tap the Details button on a conversation thread and enable the Do Not Disturb option to mute the conversation. The Do Not Disturb settings remain intact. I find this very helpful when I keep getting texts from my provider telling me to get a bigger plan.

Two smaller features worth mentioning are that you can also send your current location to a contact, and you can mark all messages in a thread as read. A contact’s details screen displays the photos that have been shared in the conversation and allows for quicker access.

Updated: December 9, 2020 at 3:36 am