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.
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