TECHNOLOGY

Did You Notice This New Apple Messages Feature?

If now isn’t a good time, I can tell you about it later

Write it now, send it later

There might be new features in Messages this fall, but I didn’t notice anything I’m likely to use. That’s probably been the case for some time; my use of Messages has been to read and type, almost never looking at that “+” sidebar.

Even with images I was sending, I was much more likely to start from photos and send from there. If I did use the + for an image or to send Apple Cash, those things were and are right at the top, so I quickly clicked and was gone.

I asked ChatGPT what is new in the past few years and see that it’s quite a bit. It told me that the first new feature was Check In, arriving in iOS 17. I never noticed that, or if I did, I thought it was pretty much the same thing as Share ETA in Maps, which I was already using. It’s NOT quite the same thing, but I still don’t think I have any use for it.

iOS 18 brought text formatting, animated effects, Tapback with any emoji or sticker, and scheduled sending. I had no idea about scheduled sending (now called Send Later), but I’ve heard more than one podcast host wishing they had such a thing, so I guess I’m not the only clueless one. It’s been there, but who knew?