Night Mode on iPhone: Everything You Need to Know

 

iOS 14: Everything New in Messages

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 14 that are worth highlighting. Read on for a summary of all the new features, and be sure to check out our included how tos for tips on how to use all the new features.

Updated Interface

Messages in iOS 14 has an improved main gui that allows you to view all messages in one feed, all messages from your list of known senders, or messages from unknown senders that are not in your list of contacts.

You can get to these different views by tapping on the "Filters" button in the main conversation list in the Messages app.

There's also a new feature that allows you to see the typing indicators in the chat list without having to tap into a conversation, so you can see at a glance all your contacts who are typing.

Pinned Chats

By swiping to the right on any of the chats in the main chat list, the most important conversations can be pinned to the top of the Messages app.

Pinning a chat transforms it into a circle, placing it front and centre at the top of the Messages app. You can pin up nine conversations in all.

Pinned-chat icons are interactive, so you can see the participant 's picture overlaid with recent unread messages, tapbacks, and indicators for typing. Fun fact: For people who have a portrait picture or a Memoji chosen as their shared image, typing indicators on pinned chats will align with the mouths.

Both single person conversations and group conversations can be pinned, and each one has the same dynamic icon feature.

The photos in pinned conversations are those that have been selected to share with you by the people you're chatting with. A feature that was introduced back in iOS 13 is shared profile images. Group chats will have the photo chosen for the group, and iOS 14 offers new options for group photo customization.

Inline Replies

Inline responses are a feature designed to promote the coordination of chats involving multiple individuals and/or multiple topics.

If you're in a chat with several people and there are conversations going on that cover multiple topics, you can make it clear who you want to reply to by using an inline reply.

Create an inline reply by pressing the message you want to reply to for a long time and selecting the "Reply" option.

Inline answers will appear threaded under the original reply, and you can see the whole conversation apart from the main chat conversation if you tap on one. Inline answers can be used in conversations with single individuals or in group chats, but in multi-person chats they are most useful.

Mentions

The Messages app mentions are designed to allow you to direct a message in a group chat to a specific person to get their attention or to make it clear to whom you are talking in a multi-person conversation.

Mentions are available in both single person chats and group conversations, but are most useful in group chats.

By typing their particular name as it appears in the contacts, you can mention anyone, so if your friend is Eric and you want to mention Eric, you'd type his name, wait for it to turn grey, and then tap it to make a mention of the name. Of course, the person you are referencing needs to be in the conversation with you.

Names that act as mentions turn blue, so you know that it works with the mention function. Notice that if you want to highlight the name of someone, you can use @eric, but @ is not needed. Using @ is, however, sometimes more convenient because it immediately transforms the name into a mention without the need to tap on it.

You can mute noisy group chats with the listed function, but then trigger a setting that warns you when someone mentions your name, so you won't miss important bits of the conversation that are explicitly aimed at you. Go to Settings > Notifications > Alert Me to get a notification when a silent conversation mentions your name.

Memoji

The Memoji feature from Apple allows you to build a custom avatar that resembles you or how you prefer to be viewed. In iOS 14, Apple has introduced hairstyles, headwear, and age choices to make your Memoji look more like you than ever before.

As many of us are doing these days, there are also masks so that your Memoji can wear a mask, and there are new Memoji stickers available to reflect embraces, fist bumps, and blushing.

Emoji Search

Macs have had an emoji interface for a long time , which includes a search feature, and iOS devices do too now. There is now a search bar available when you tap the Emoji or Globe button to view the emoji interface, where you can search through emoji by keyword to find exactly what you are searching for.

Group Chat Customizations

IOS 14 allows icons to be selected in a group chat in addition to a name, allowing the group chats to be more personalised so that you can tell them apart. To configure it, just open the info tab of any group conversation.

To serve as an icon for a group chat, you can select a custom picture, text, Memoji, Animoji, or emoji as well as customise the background colour for the icon.