Apple has made some very welcomed changes to the Messages, the app people use most. iOS 8 brings some beefy update to the Messages application making it simpler to use, intuitive, and less annoying. Specific actions can now be performed with swipes and all new group messages comes with “don not disturb” feature to avoid threads bombarded with notifications from your group messages.
Starting with iOS 8, you can easily add you voice to the conversation. Touch and hold the microphone button in the Messages app, record you message, song or a big laugh, and send it as a part of the conversation with a swipe-up gesture. To listen to a voice message received in a conversation, simply tap the play button, or lift your phone to your ear and listen it like phone call. Similarly, iOS 8 also makes it easy to share videos via Messages.
Other new features in Messages app is the group messaging to which you can assign a custom name, add or remove users instantly. You can either leave an annoying group or turn on do not disturb feature and read the messages when you’ve time.
In iOS 8, you can share your location via messages app, and see people in the message thread on a map if they’ve shared their locations. You can set the time for how long you want to share your location.
Messages now group all the shared photos in a thread. There’s no need to scroll through all the earlier messages to find the attached pictures or videos, you’ll see all the exchanged videos and photos going back to the first chat under a separate page.
Now you can send multiple photos and videos at once via messages. Simply tap the camera icon to see the most recent photos in your Camera Roll. tap and select your desired files you want to share. Under Photo Library, you’ll find all your older photos and videos.
Registered iOS developers can download iOS 8.1 beta from the iOS Dev Center. The final version of iOS 8 will be available to the general public later this year. Other major new features in iOS 8 includes Spotlight, Healthkit, Quicktype, and more.
More on iOS 8
iOS 8 Features List – What’s New
How to downgrade iOS 8 beta to iOS 7.1.1
How to Install iOS 8 beta on iPhone and iPad
Download iOS 8 Wallpapers for iPhone and iPad