iMessages: Complete Guide to iOS 13

 
The home of iMessages, Apple's exclusive device-to-device messaging protocol suggested by those well-known blue chat bubbles, is one of the quintessential applications on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

You know how the Messages app functions if you're an iPhone user, but the Messages app gets some helpful new features in iOS 13 that are worth highlighting. Read on for a review of all the new features, and check out our list of how to use all the new features with instructions.

User Profiles

IOS 13 Messages enables you to add a picture of yourself or an Animoji) and a name that is exchanged with people when you give them a message. This lets people know who you are even if you're not on their contacts list, and adds a picture and a name to your contacts.

You can customise your Messages profile to share with Friends Only always ask for it before you share it with others, or automatically share it with anyone with whom you send a message.

Revamped Search Capabilities

There has been a search option for messages for a long time, but it's not especially helpful. That's changing with an entirely new search interface and new search features in iOS 13.

Accessible by swiping down the main Messages screen and clicking the search bar, the search interface shows a list of recent contacts, the connections you got in Messages, the images you were sent, the places you exchanged, and the attachments you received.

Search is more practical in itself, providing a complete list of results grouped by date for a given search word, without grouping those results by person. For example, if you search for "cats" and have had multiple cats conversations with someone, iOS 13 separately lists each incident with the cats search word, which is not the case in earlier versions of iOS.

Messages Info Pane

There are new parts when you press on the I icon at the top of a discussion with others, allowing you to get a closer look at the types of media that have been posted.

There are separate sections for photos, links, attachments, and locations.

New Memoji Customization Options

IOS 13 presents new Memoji customization options, which are animated, emoji-like characters that you can customise to look like yourself and other individuals.

In addition to more hair styles and extra colours to apply to the hair and other accessories, there are new choices for lipstick, teeth, piercings, earrings, headwear and glasses.

Memoji are devices with a TrueDepth front-facing camera that are available for animation based on your own facial expressions. Memoji, like Animoji, can be used with your own voice for animated images, and there are new sticker options on iOS 13 as well.

Animoji and Memoji Stickers

With classic emoji-like poses and expressions, Apple has added a range of distinct Animoji and Memoji stickers, such as heart eyes, brain bursting, shushing face, laughing with tears, weeping, shrugging, palm face, and more.

These new stickers are similar to something like Bitmoji with Memoji, letting you express yourself with a character that through a series of stickers looks like you. The Animoji are more informative than a conventional emoji and, but in emoji form, feature the same Animoji characters.

The Animoji and Memoji stickers are available at the bottom of every message conversation in the Messages app panel. Only tap the button in the App Store, then pick an icon that looks like a variety of Memoji faces.

Memoji and Animoji are limited to the newest iPhones from Apple, but Animoji and Memoji stickers are more universal and can be used with an A9 chip or later on all Apple devices.

While Memoji and Animoji stickers are available in the Messages app, you can also use them via the emoji icon on the keyboard in other areas, such as Mail and Notes.

New Animoji

Animoji are animated, 3D emoji characters which you can use your face to manipulate. Like Memoji, the TrueDepth front-facing camera is used by Animoji on modern devices, with more than 50 muscle movements tracked to mimic facial expressions and emotions in different areas of the face.

Over the last few years, there are more than 20 Animoji characters that have been added, and iOS 13 adds three more a rat, an octopus, and a cow.

Dual-SIM Support

When using the dual-SIM feature available on iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR, iMessages in iOS 13 adds support for two phone numbers. With iMessage, there's no longer a need to pick a number to use - both will work. When beginning a new conversation, users can select which number to choose and can swap between them when writing a new post.