iMessage was a revelation for Apple. Not only is it a sleek and reliable messaging platform, but it’s also proven to keep people in the Apple ecosystem because they don’t want to lose it. But no matter how good it is, there is always room for improvement. With that in mind, we think taking the following features from the more popular WhatsApp would help iMessage stay on top of its game.
Locked discussions
One of the newest features introduced by WhatsApp is the ability to hide your locked chats from your normal folders and only have them appear when you enter your password. Not only does this mean you can block people from accessing certain conversations if they get their hands on your phone, but the best part is they simply won’t know they’re there.
Right now, you can’t password protect conversations on iMessage, let alone make the folder disappear. The only option is to use a clunky ScreenTime hack to prevent access to iMessage, but that locks the entire app. While Apple likes to talk about its privacy and security prowess, adding this feature to iMessages would seem an obvious next step.
Broadcasts
Another useful feature on WhatsApp is broadcast lists. These work by creating a list of people, to whom you can then send the same message without needing to repeat it multiple times. Ah, but it’s like Group iMessage, you might say. Well, that’s not the case.
With Group iMessage, the clue is in the name, because everything you send is placed in the group chat for all recipients. Broadcasts are different because the message you send appears in each person’s personal conversation with you, not in a group. So it’s like sending multiple private messages to a large number of people, rather than continuing a group conversation.
Last seen
This is a simple but really useful little feature that has been around on WhatsApp for years. When you open the app and search for a contact, you’ll be notified when the person was last active on the service. It’s basic, but it’s great for letting you know if someone is there or hasn’t opened WhatsApp in a while and isn’t just broadcasting you while they read other people’s message (or, in the worst case, he does).
Although iMesssage lets you know when someone saw your messages and shows their current status (i.e. if they are using the app), there is no way to see last seen that he was active. This should be a simple solution, but for some reason Apple has remained reluctant to include it on the platform. It introduced the Check In feature in iOS 17, which automatically lets people know when you’ve reached a particular destination, but it’s quite a different feature.
Messages that disappear
SnapChat may have pioneered disappearing messages, as virtually its entire identity is based on this principle, but WhatsApp has already adopted this feature in its app as well. The idea is simple, you specify how long you want messages to remain available (24 hours, 7 days or 90 days), then anything you send will automatically be deleted from the recipients’ chat once the time is up.
This means that you retain some control over messages even after you send them, which is again another privacy feature that would be welcome in iMessage.
You can automatically delete messages on iMessage, but that doesn’t delete them from other people’s feeds, just yours, unlike WhatsApp’s.
Export chat to email
If you want to keep your conversations even when you’re away from WhatsApp, the ability to export them to a .txt file emailed to you is a useful backup option. This way you will have a record of what was said and to whom, but you will not need the app to read the document.
It’s sort of possible on iMessage, but requires a Mac or PC and third-party software. We think including an export feature for chat histories would be something many people would like, although Apple might want to keep this out of iMessage, as it would make the service’s exit less dramatic for those which have been in his walled garden for many years. There’s nothing to worry about though, as these five features would make iMessage as good as WhatsApp, and there are plenty of other things it can do that would mean people would continue to buy iPhones for years to come .
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