iMessage has been one thing of a revelation for Apple. Not solely is it a smooth and dependable messaging platform, it’s additionally confirmed to be one thing that may hold folks within the Apple ecosystem as they don’t need to lose it. However, pretty much as good as it’s, there’s all the time room for enchancment. With this in thoughts we expect taking the next options from the extra fashionable WhatsApp would assist iMessage keep on high kind.
Locked chats
One of many latest options WhatsApp has launched is having the ability to disguise your locked chats away out of your regular folders and have them solely seem while you enter your password. Not solely does this imply you possibly can cease folks accessing sure conversations in the event that they pay money for your telephone, the most effective half is that they merely gained’t know they’re there.
In the mean time, you possibly can’t password defend conversations on iMessage, not to mention make the folder disappear. The one possibility is to make use of a careless ScreenTime hack to stop entry to iMessage, however that locks the entire app. As Apple likes to go on about its privateness and safety prowess, including this characteristic to iMessages would appear an apparent subsequent step.
Broadcasts
One other useful characteristic on WhatsApp is broadcast lists. These work by creating an inventory of individuals, which might then be despatched the identical message while not having to repeat it a number of occasions. Ah, however that’s identical to Group iMessage, you would possibly say. Effectively, it’s not.
With Group iMessage, the clue’s within the title as something you ship is positioned within the group chat for all of the recipients. Broadcasts are totally different, because the message you ship seems in every individual’s personal private chat with you, not in a gaggle. So, it’s identical to sending a number of non-public messages to numerous folks, moderately than carrying on a gaggle dialog.
Final seen
This can be a easy however actually useful little characteristic that has been on WhatsApp for years. Whenever you open the app and lookup a contact, you’re instructed the final time the individual was lively on the service. It’s fundamental, however is nice for letting you understand if somebody is round or hasn’t opened WhatsApp for some time and isn’t simply airing you whereas they learn different folks’s message (or, in a worst case state of affairs, they’re).
Whereas iMesssage lets you understand when somebody has seen your messages and exhibits their present standing (ie, in the event that they’re utilizing the app), there’s no technique to see the final time they have been lively. This must be a simple repair, however for some purpose Apple has remained reluctant to incorporate it on the platform. It did introduce the Examine In characteristic in iOS 17, which robotically lets folks know while you’ve reached a specific vacation spot, however that’s fairly a special characteristic.
Disappearing messages
SnapChat might have been the one to pioneer disappearing messages, as just about its entire identification is predicated on this precept, however WhatsApp has already adopted the characteristic into its app as properly. The concept is straightforward, you specify how lengthy you need the messages to stay obtainable (24 hours, 7 days or 90 days), then something you ship shall be robotically deleted from the recipients chat when the time elapses.
Which means that you keep some management over the messages, even after you’ve despatched them, which once more is one other privateness characteristic that might be welcome in iMessage.
You may auto-delete messages on iMessage, however this doesn’t take them from different folks’s feeds, simply your individual, whereas the WhatsApp one does.
Export chat to e-mail
If you wish to protect your conversations, even when away from WhatsApp, then the flexibility to export it to a .txt file that’s despatched to you in an e-mail is a useful backup possibility. This manner, you’ll have a file of what was stated and to whom, however gained’t want the app to learn the doc.
It’s form of potential on iMessage, however requires a Mac or PC and a few third-party software program. We expect that together with an export operate for chat histories can be one thing that loads of folks would really like, though Apple would possibly need to hold this off iMessage, as it might make leaving the service much less dramatic for individuals who’ve been in its walled backyard for a few years. It has nothing to fret about although, as these 5 options would make iMessage simply pretty much as good as WhatsApp, plus there’s loads of different issues that it may possibly do that might imply folks hold shopping for iPhones for years to come back.
