What's New in iOS 8: Messages

POST

MAIL

Posted June 3, 2014 at 11:44pm by iClarified

Apple has announced numerous improvements to the Messages app in iOS 8. Here's a look at what's new.

Photo/Video Messages:
You can now quickly send video messages by pressing and holding the camera icon to the left of the text input field. Once you've framed your image you can tap the camera icon at the top to take a photo or hold the red record button to the right to begin recording video. You can keep finger down during this entire process to make it quicker. Once you've finished recording your video, you can swipe up to the left to send it or lift up your finger. Releasing the record button reveals a play button that can be used to review your video.

Audio Messages:
The new Messages app lets you quickly send audio messages to your friends. Press and hold the microphone icon to the right of the text input field to begin recording. Swipe your finger to the left to cancel the voice message or swipe up to send.

When receiving an audio messages you can raise your iPhone to ear to listen to it or tap the Play button to play it out loud.

Location Sharing:
You can now choose to share your location in the middle of a conversation for an hour, until the end of the day, or indefinitely. You can also see people in the message thread on a map if they’ve shared their locations.

To send your location, tap the Details button at the top right of a conversation. You can choose to 'Send My Current Location' or 'Share My Location'.

Group Messages:
Apple has made some significant improvements to Group Messaging. You can now name group conversations. You can also add and remove participants whenever you want. In addition, you can even set an individual conversation to 'Do No Disturb'. To access these feature you must tap the Details button at the top right of the screen.

Attachments:
You can now view all the attachments that were sent in a conversation. Tap the Details button at the top right and scroll down to the attachments section.

Quickly Send Photos and Video:
Tapping the camera icon to the left of text input field brings up a new media picker. Your most recent photos are displayed right in the action sheet. You can select multiple photos for sending or tap to bring up your Photo Library.

Word Suggestions:
A new bar sits just under the text input field and above the keyboard to offer word suggestions as you type.

Please follow iClarified on Twitter, Facebook, or RSS for updates on what's new in iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 Yosemite.

Follow iClarified

Drumso Lion - June 4, 2014 at 10:09am

Finally! I've been waiting these features to come. My body is ready!

Reply · Like

iSheep - June 4, 2014 at 4:59pm

Same here. Bring out the new iPhone. My mind, my body, and my money is ready.

Ras Munky - June 4, 2014 at 5:54am

All i care about is SMS support for iPad and Mac. I want to be able send SMS on my iPad at least if I cannot make a call.

nick - June 4, 2014 at 12:45am

i am not getting any update info in software updation about ios8 , from where i can get the updation .

Imri - June 4, 2014 at 7:44am

You won't get lol only in a few months from now, apple only released iOS 8 beta , it lets developers review it and notify her about bugs in the os so it could fix it until the initial release to the public , which will probably happen with the iphone 6 release in few months from now.

Tny - June 4, 2014 at 12:28am

Nothing really new, all that features already exist on Cidya or Android, try HTC one M8, it's real good.

Tny - June 4, 2014 at 12:37am

I junked my iPhone 5S for the "spam8", I just got tired of the silly iPhone.

SimonSays - June 4, 2014 at 12:21am

I for one was not impressed with this years WWDC. Sure some of te features they added are nice. But it wasn't anything mind blowing. Guess we will have to wait for the iPhone 6 announcement to see what features they bring to the new phone

SimonSays - June 4, 2014 at 12:20am

gamerscul9870 - June 4, 2014 at 12:23am

Dude, the handoff and the picture fix is amazing, and the way apple somehow improves a7 performance with metal instead of opengles without replacing the product, now these mind blew me.

SliderBoy - June 4, 2014 at 12:42am

I must agree with you on that but it's frustrating that to have some funcionalities in the iPhone the only way is with JB....never know WHY the delivery reports NEVER been in the plans of any iOS and it's a function that ALL cellphones had since there is cellphones...

Nitro Junkie - June 4, 2014 at 6:01am

Sliderboy I kind of agree but they can't add everything at once. Can't do too much at once or we'd never have anything to look forward too. Ya you can say they're kind of slow at some things but it takes time to do it right, unlike others do who just rush half assed shit just to be first. Think of all the back end programming it takes just to do what they showed on stage plus what they've added and didn't show. All while trying to make it all secure and run smoothly with everything else in the OS. The new developer stuff they talked about is going to widen up iOS more than anyone has thought. Even though its not really "open" they seem to be relaxing a little when I comes too third party stuff that works with the os. Like the third party keyboards, notification widgets, touch id for third party apps and allowing apps to work together. No one ever thought they'd allow other keyboards besides there own. Give it some time and they'll start allowing more third party stuff. Maybe not exactly like what jailbreaking offers but it's still better than nothing and at least it will be secure.

Nitro Junkie - June 4, 2014 at 6:42am

Ya it wasn't crazy mind blowing but it was good. They can't always do and add everything at once. The new stuff for developers is what's going to open up crazy possibilities for the future of iOS in my opinion. Like I said in my previous comment I think they seem to been relaxing a slight bit when it comes to some customization, like apps working together and having third party stuff integrate and work with the OS. It's been done on the Mac for years, now maybe since they're going the more powerful 64 bit route and adding more security features they'll start opening it up a bit more. Only time will tell. I was also thinking maybe they have some features they're waiting to show off at the new product presentations that will only be able to work on the bigger screened phones or new iPads. Since they'll have more powerful processing with the upgraded 64 bit A8 processors. They've done it before. Like FaceTime on the 4, Siri on the 4S, and some features that only worked on the 5 and 5S when they came out. They may not happen but I was thinking maybe real on screen widgets since they'll have more processing power and on screen space. Unless they wait until next year to get the design and functionality right and then add them in iOS 9. Also running 2 apps side by side, which had been rumored and might only be able to run and look good on a bigger screened iPhones and newer more powerful iPads. Who knows. Like you said we'll have to wait and see. It's only going to get better in my opinion.

SliderBoy - June 4, 2014 at 12:15am

So many "improvements" that just a few of us will use...about 10 or 20% of the time when sending iMessage's. I would be really satisfied if iOS 8 add the (simple) function of "delivery reports" when sending (old fashion) SMS's (like the cellphones of the 90's always had) and what it would be REALLY COOL was if iOS 8 was able to have "a thing" like Cydia's "Swipe Selection" in the keyboard...! > Just an iPhone user opinion.

gamerscul9870 - June 4, 2014 at 12:19am

The more features iOS has, the slightly less space you have, that's why cydia is here, we can limit the space we use.

gamerscul9870 - June 3, 2014 at 11:58pm

I can't wait. Doing camera and message in the same app!! :D