iMessage is Apple’s built-in instant messaging (IM) service. The app lets you send text, pictures, videos, sound and locations quick and easy to anyone else using iMessage on iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple Watch.
Our Rating: 4/5
Available on: iOS5 and later, and OS X Mountain Lion and later.
Owners of these devices can register one or more email address with Apple and additionally iPhone owners can register their phone numbers with Apple and start using iMessage.
On iPhone devices, the green-text-bubbles indicate SMS-based communication and on all iOS devices, blue-text-bubbles indicate iMessage communication. The text users sent is aligned on the right and replies from other people on the left.
With the latest – iOS 10 – the updates are bubble effects; lets you add a custom effect to your text, by making it slam, or send messages that remain hidden with “invisible ink” until the receiver swipes them open. Among all the features the screen effects will transmit a message with balloons, confetti, lasers or fireworks that will appear on the other iPhone user’s screen once they open the text.
iMessage also allows Digital Touch which is the ability to send hand-draw sketches, kisses or even a sensor-read heartbeat. The latest update also features emoji predictive; emojis shows up for words, as you type so you do not need to search for the right emoji – automatically replacing text with emoji. It is full on emojification!!!
You can send iMessages over Wi-Fi or cellular data to anyone and everyone using an iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod touch or Apple Watch. You can also send standard carrier SMS/MMS text and picture to anyone on any smartphone. In iMessage, you can send voice memos, and contact cards, create a group to send messages to two or more people, where you can share favourite memories, soundbites and location.
iMessage is quick to send GIFs, draw over your photos, and combine iMessage with Apple’s virtual assistant, Siri, to send texts and even have incoming texts read to you, all with the power of your voice.
All these features in iMessage turn it into a platform that can compete with the likes of Facebook Messenger, Snapchat and WhatsApp. The more users take advantage of these hidden tricks, the more iMessage will become, and continue, to evolve. iMessage is among the most frequently used iOS apps, ad with all these features it is now a lot more fun to use it.
