Notification Center and iMessage in iOS 5

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Notification Center and iMessage in iOS 5

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Q: I have updated my iPhone 4 with the new iOS 5 through iTunes and the install seemed to go well. I think I have most of the new updates working but the Notification Center and iMessage apps are missing from my home screen. There doesn’t seem to be an option to reinstall the iOS 5 update or enable these applications. Any idea what could have happened?

- Paul

A: Despite Apple’s branding of the Notification Center as if it were an app icon, there actually isn’t a Notification Center “app” in iOS 5. The Notification Center is built into the core operating system and can be configured from the built-in Settings app and accessed from any screen by swiping your finger down from the status bar. Although you can enable or disable individual notifications, there’s actually no way to turn the Notification Center off entirely, so if you’ve successfully updated to iOS 5, it should be there.

iMessages is a similar situation—although it appears as a new app on the iPad and iPod touch, it’s integrated into the same “Messages” app that has been available on the iPhone from day one. You don’t get a new icon or separate app for iMessages—you just keep on using the same Messages app that you always have, except that now you can send iMessages using it in addition to traditional SMS/MMS messages. The Messages app will lookup any phone number and e-mail address you enter automatically and choose whether to send an iMessage or an SMS message depending on whether the destination address is registered for iMessage or not.

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