iMessage

Promote iMessage to your Menu Bar with Unreplied for macOS

Find it hard at times to stay on top of your iMessage and SMS influx because you’re just too damn popular? Or are you simply a notoriously slow responder that likes to wait until that red badge on iMessage has swollen to inordinate proportions?

Either way, Unreplied, a low-key app bundling iMessage chats in your Mac’s Menu Bar, vows to make your iMessage game faster and perhaps less flaky.

Hide unwanted features from the Messages app with NoMessageButtons

The Messages app gets more new features with each iteration of iOS, but whether you use all those features continues to be a pressing question that needs to be explored.

If you feel like you don’t use all the modern features in the Messages app, you can use a new free jailbreak tweak called NoMessageButtons by iOS developer NeinZedd9 to remove extraneous buttons from the interface and achieve a minimalist look and feel.

Blacklist specific emoji from appearing throughout iOS with Nomoji

We've seen jailbreak tweaks that let you designate favorite emojis, but none so far that allow you to block emojis you don't like seeing from appearing in apps.

If you dislike certain emojis, or a friend of yours uses them too often in messaging or social media, then a new jailbreak tweak called Nomoji by iOS developer PoomSmart will come in clutch.

Apple celebrates America’s national parks with Apple Pay donations & Activity challenge

From July 1 through July 15, Apple is donating $1 to the National Park Foundation for every purchase made with Apple Pay at any Apple Store, on apple.com or through the Apple Store app for iPhone and iPad in the United States.

Apple Pay is accepted at select locations in some of the most popular national parks, from Yellowstone and Yosemite to the Grand Canyon and Muir Woods National Monument.

Proceeds will support the National Park Foundation’s mission to help protect and preserve national parks through conservation projects and other initiatives, as well as inspire the next generation of park enthusiasts with enriching youth programming.

According to CEO Tim Cook:

America’s national parks are an inspiration to us at Apple, and we know they are as important to many of our customers as they are to us. Our goal is to leave the world better than we found it, so this July we’re making it easier for anyone to help preserve the beauty of our natural, cultural and historical treasures.

Apple Watch owners who complete a walk, run or wheelchair workout of 3.5 miles (about 5.6 kilometers) on July 15, which matches the length of a hike from Old Faithful to Mallard Lake in Yellowstone National Park, will earn a special badge in the Activity app and unique stickers in the Messages app for iPhone, inspired by national parks.

Apple adds that App Store will soon highlight a collection of “some of the best apps to help users easily navigate and explore the country’s most beautiful national parks.”

Kairos 2 lets you schedule text messages for future dates and times

Have you ever thought to yourself, “I wish I could schedule iMessages or text messages to send at a future date?” Well, now you don’t have to just sit and wish for such functionality anymore.

A jailbreak tweak called Kairos 2 by iOS developer CP Digital Darkroom enables iMessage and SMS scheduling right from the stock Messages app on your jailbroken iPhone or iPad.

Messages in iOS 11 gains iCloud syncing, revamped app drawer & more

Apple announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference today that Messages on iOS 11 will now synchronize your chats across devices via iCloud while making it a lot easier to get to your favorite iMessage apps and stickers using a redesigned app drawer.

With the redesigned drawer, your favorite iMessage apps and stickers live as horizontally-scrollable thumbnail icons lined alongside the bottom of the interface. Before today, getting to a sticker pack or an iMessage app you wanted to use was a multi-tap affair. With a new Messages in iCloud feature, when you sign in to a new device all your existing conversations will be automatically synchronized, and stay in sync.

For example, if you delete a message on your iPhone it will get automatically deleted from Messages on your iPad, and vice versa. And because your full Messages archive is now synced via iCloud, iOS 11 only keeps the most recent messages on the device while downloading older ones on demand.

As a result, Messages will consume a lot less storage space on your device, and device backups will be faster, too. According to Apple, iOS 10 is now installed on 86 percent of supported devices in the wild, up from the 79 percent adoption rate for iOS 10 reported on February 20, 2017.

iOS 10 features 96 percent customer satisfaction.

Image: The current Messages app on iOS 10.

Close those rings: Apple issues Earth Day 2017 activity challenge

In addition to teaming up with World Wildlife Fund on a praiseworthy money-raising initiative, Apple is also honoring Earth Day 2017 with a new activity challenge for Apple Watch owners. MacStories, which first spotted Apple's notification, explains that Apple Watch owners are being challenged to complete at least half an hour workout on Saturday to earn a new medal in the Activity app and unlock special iMessage stickers.

Lara Croft GO gains new levels and iMessage sticker pack via Mirror of Spirits update

Developer Square Enix this morning issued a new content update to its turn-based isometric puzzle mobile game, Lara Croft GO. Bumping version number to 2.1.7, the game now lets you take Lara through a whole new journey in an alternate reality. Specifically, the update brings out a whole new chapter named Mirror of Spirits with 25 new puzzles and three new mechanics. As a bonus, players get a brand new Lara-themed sticker pack for iMessage. The update is available at no additional charge to those who have purchased the game.

Customize the look of your Messages app with BetterMessages

If you can’t stand the stock look of your stock Messages app, then maybe it’s time to put that jailbreak to good use.

A new free jailbreak tweak called BetterMessages by harrywantstodev provides you with a number of new customization options for making your Messages app look unique when compared to everyone else’s.

Starbucks rolls out iMessage app for gifting digital cards with Apple Pay support

As previously announced, Starbucks today updated its iPhone app with the ability to send gifts through Apple’s iMessage system and pay for them with Apple Pay directly in the Messages app. Named Starbucks Gifts, the software requires you to set up Apple Pay on your device before you can purchase gift cards in $5, $10 or $25 denominations. Today's update also brings notifications, a store location filter for the Nitro cold brew and other perks.