Calling & Texting

One of the most significant changes to iPhone that came with iOS 18 lets you text Android users in the Messages app with iMessage-like features such as typing indicators, read receipts, large file sharing, high-quality photos and videos, and even emoji reactions.

One of the coolest aesthetic features of iMessage is its animated message effects. If you're like many users, you might even have discovered them by accident, where wishing your friend a "Happy Birthday!" or congratulating them on a promotion unexpectedly flooded your screen with balloons or confetti.

Apple's Messages app already has a ton of great features, from audio message transcriptions to message editing and screen effect triggers. But some important new features and changes are included in the latest software updates for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that make Messages even better.

At first glance, Apple's Messages app has always seemed pretty basic when it comes to text formatting options. However, there were and still are hidden ways to format text in your messages. But Apple's latest software updates give us even more ways to dress up text in messages, including more text effects.

Tech tends to move forward without looking back, but that doesn't mean new is always better. One feature that dominated mobile phones in the late '90s had made a comeback thanks to Apple, and you can take advantage of it on your iPhone when making calls.

There are many things Apple doesn't tell you about its products, and that's definitely the case when it comes to its Messages app. Hidden features lurk in your SMS and iMessage conversations just waiting to be found, and we've unearthed some of the most secret ones.

Whether you're wielding an iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android phone or tablet, or even a Windows PC, this little-known secret holds the key to effortless assistance and unwavering obedience. Intrigued? I thought so.

We haven't seen an emoji update for iPhone since iOS 15.4, which gave us 112 new emoji characters, but that's finally changed with the release of iOS 16.4. Here are all the new emoji you get after installing the latest software update.

While new features in Safari, Camera, Photos, Notes, Weather, Messages, and other Apple apps may steal the show on iOS 17, there are some impressive new features you need to know about when it comes to FaceTime audio and video calls.

Apple's Live Voicemail lets you preview what an incoming caller is speaking to your voicemail system in real time. It's a revolutionary feature like Visual Voicemail on the original iPhone, only better since it helps you screen calls to quickly decide whether to answer or ignore callers. It's similar to answering machines, whose popularity peaked in the mid-90s, but you quietly read transcribed messages instead.

Not everyone stickers, but that's going to change with Apple's new sticker options on iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and even macOS Sonoma. Before you know it, people everywhere will be adding stickers to messages and emails — including you.

You might have missed it, but the virtual keypad you use to enter phone numbers in your smartphone's dialer and contacts app isn't all numbers. Take a closer look, and you'll notice a few mysterious buttons you've likely been tuning out unconsciously. But it's time to stop ignoring them because each has a particular purpose that could come in handy one day.

There are a surprising number of hidden features in your iPhone's Phone app, from secret dialer codes that provide info or perform actions to special characters that dial extensions automatically. However, there's one little-known trick every iPhone owner should know when using the Phone app for calls — and it's the simplest and most useful of them all.

Apple's Contacts app just got its biggest update ever. Since the first iPhone in 2008, there have only been minor upgrades here and there to how you manage and interact with contacts. That changes with iOS 16.

We've been able to mark all or individual unread conversations as read in Apple's Messages app since iOS 8. Eight years later, Apple is finally letting us mark individual text and iMessage chats as unread.

Apple's iOS 16 for iPhone includes even more ways to customize your Memoji characters, and it even removes some barriers that were in place in iOS 15.

To record an audio message in the Messages app on iOS 15, you would tap and hold the audio messages button in the text entry field of the conversation. Then, you could let go to preview it before sending it or swipe up to send it right away. That's no longer the case on iOS 16 for iPhone.

Apple finally unveiled the iPhone 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro, and 14 Pro Max, and there are a lot of improvements that'll make you want to trade in your current iPhone stat. But I wouldn't be so quick to upgrade because there's one "feature" that will make many of you rethink getting a new iPhone 14 series model.