Apple Unveils New iMessage Features and Social Media Is Ecstatic

Apple unveiled a whole lot of new features on Monday at its Worldwide Developer Conference, and [...]

By Michael Hein

Apple unveiled a whole lot of new features on Monday at its Worldwide Developer Conference, and social media is already eager to try out the new version of iMessage. Apple's built-in text messaging app is getting a few new features that will make it more user friendly — especially for group discussions. Many can't wait to get the new interface on their own device.

Apple's WWDC event was livestreamed on Monday, highlighting its upcoming operating system iOS 14 as well as some of the biggest app upgrades that will come with it, according to a report by Tech Crunch. That includes iMessage, where users will now be able to pin their most important conversations to the top of the list so that they never lose them. The update will also allow users to "mention" each other in active group chats, much like on social media. You will be able to arrange your settings so that you only get notifications from that group when you are mentioned.

A few other subtle features are included as well. The small speech bubble with ellipses that shows when a person is typing will now show on the message list, not just in the conversation, letting you know when someone is writing you a long note. Memojis will now be able to wear face masks as well, in observance of the coronavirus pandemic.

Judging by social media, it looks like the updates to iMessage are one of the most anticipated announcements from WWDC 2020. On Twitter, many people compared the upcoming features to those available on existing services like WhatsApp, saying that it was about time Apple followed suit.

In particular, many people shared their excitement about mentions and conversation threads in iMessage, where big group chats can be hard to manage. Still, others said that they hoped they would be able to turn these new features off if they proved to be too much. Many people want to keep texting simple and separate from social media.

Among Apple's other announcements were some hardware displays, including new AirPods, a new Apple Watch and new processors for Mac computers. Apple is working on CPUs designed in-house, which will be able to run iOS apps on a laptop or desktop.

Developers and other industry professionals are getting access to Apple's new offerings now, while public betas will start to be released in July. The features will be everywhere some time this fall.

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