Apple updates all of its operating systems and almost all of its apps at its annual developers conference. The company held WWDC 2020 in a new online only fashion amid the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic.
Some of the most interesting additions for consumers are definitely on the iMessage platform. For long, the Messages app largely maintained a simple user experience, however, Apple is finally adding a lot more useful features which users have been asking for long.
The Messages app now gets the option to reply to a message similar to the feature found on WhatsApp or other third-party messaging apps. However, one of the most interesting features is the pin feature which lets users pin chats to be always on the top of the conversations list.
In group chats, users can reply to a specific message; Apple calls this feature “Inline replies”. Users can also see the replied messages as a thread to better understand the context of the ongoing conversation as it’s easy to get lost in group chats.
Group chats also get new interesting features like the ability to place a group icon which can either be a custom image or an icon containing profile pictures of all the group participants. Users can also now mention a user specifically by using the @ key before the user’s name – a feature which is found on chat apps like Telegram.
Even if most of these features can be found on other third-party messaging platforms, these new features are welcome on Apple’s iMessage platform. Apple’s Messages does have some unique features like chat effects which make people stick to their messaging platform and also its encryption features which make it one of the most secure messaging apps. Other messaging apps also offer encrypted texts but Apple’s stance on privacy makes a lot of people trust Apple more compared to the competition.
