Learn how to quickly delete multiple attachments like photos and videos in Apple's built-in Messages app on the Mac to free up storage space and keep things organized.
How to bulk delete attachments from the Messages app on Mac
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How to bulk delete attachments from the Messages app on iOS
Apple's Messages app for iOS is capable of not only sending and receiving texts in the form of iMessages or SMS, but it can also send and receive files, which are known as attachments. Over time, attachments add up. This takes up valuable storage space on your device and keeps a paper trail of everything you've sent and received to one another.
Here, we'll show you how you can easily bulk delete attachments from a conversation in the Messages app without deleting the entire conversation.
SwitchService: a tweak that lets you quickly toggle between iMessage and SMS messages
BiteSMS was a jailbreak app that acted as an outright replacement for the stock Messages app. It was extremely popular due to the bevy of different features that it brought to the table. One such feature was the ability to quickly switch between sending messages as iMessages or standard SMS messages.
Sadly, BiteSMS has been defunct for some time now, and with it, many of the features that made it so great. But a new jailbreak tweak called SwitchService brings back the ability to toggle between iMessage and SMS messages, and as you'll see, it works very well.
Pebble rolling out Text Reply for iOS feature
Pebble today announced a new messaging feature for iOS users designed to make it possible to send text messages through a carrier.
Dubbed Text Reply for iOS, this feature is in beta and available on the Pebble Time, Pebble Time Steel and Pebble Time Round family of smartwatches.
In addition, Text Reply for iOS is currently an AT&T exclusive though Pebble says it's working on bringing this capability to Pebble fans on other carriers.
Screenshots show WhatsApp for iOS’ calling feature currently in beta
Italian blog iPhoneItalia has posted a series of screenshots showing the new calling feature currently in beta testing for WhatsApp, the hugely popular communications app owned by Facebook.
WhatsApp has been rolling out the functionality to select users as part of a beta testing program over the past few months, with plans to release it to the public in the near future. Since more texts in the world are being sent through WhatsApp than traditional SMS, the new VOIP calling from WhatsApp could be a very big deal.
Shared AT&T plans get more LTE data, unlimited international messaging for no additional cost
The nation's second-largest carrier, AT&T, said on Friday that it will be increasing monthly data allotments for two of its Mobile Share Value plans.
Beginning Sunday, November 2, Mobile Share Value customers will get three gigabytes of high-speed 4G LTE data for $40 a month instead of two gigabytes.
In addition, customers on a pricer tier will be treated to six gigabytes for $70 a month instead of four gigabytes like before.
Furthermore, all Mobile Share Value plans now get unlimited international messaging for text, picture and video for no additional cost.
Cannot activate iOS 8’s Text Message Forwarding and iPhone Cellular Calls? Here’s a fix.
As soon as iOS 8.1 hit two days ago, I immediately went about checking out a pair of new features I care about the most, Text Message Forwarding and iPhone Cellular Calls.
As a quick reminder, Text Message Forwarding lets me mirror text messages sent to my iPhone in the Messages app on the Mac or iPad. With iPhone Cellular Calls turned on, I can finally make and receive phone calls on my other Mac and iOS devices through my iPhone's cellular connection.
But something was amiss, or so I thought, because I just couldn't get either feature to work. While attempting to enable Text Message Forwarding, the system prompted me to enter a confirmation code my Mac was supposed to generated, but didn't.
Likewise, trying to enable iPhone Cellular Calls yielded a FaceTime error message saying my devices must use the same iCloud account, even though I was using FaceTime without any problems before.
Having spent a few hours restoring my devices as new, reseting network settings, changing settings on my router and checking the status of iCloud services, I eventually came to the same realization as did the other affected users: Text Message Forwarding requires you to use an email address and for iPhone Cellular Calls to work properly, FaceTime must be signed in with your Apple ID.
Apple: iOS 8’s SMS forwarding arriving in October
When iOS 8 launches for public consumption next Wednesday, text message relaying will not work immediately from day one because Apple plans to enable the feature in October, according to the just-refreshed iOS 8 webpage detailing the Continuity feature that was first spotted Friday morning by iLongue.
Now listed as ”coming in October”, the delayed launch coincides nicely with an upcoming October release of the free OS X Yosemite update. A discussion thread at MacRumors corroborates iLounge's findings, suggesting Apple has disabled SMS relaying on its servers in the past couple of days, likely until Yosemite is officially released.
This development isn't surprising to us given that iOS 8 and Yosemite are more dependent on each other by Continuity than previously.
Apple to fix iMessage phone number issues in a ‘future software update’
No, Apple is not intentionally trying to make life tougher for its former users who switched to another smartphone brand.
According to a statement a company spokesperson issued to Re/code, a fix for the issue with texts not being properly delivered to people who switched away from the iPhone is in the works.
Apple says a two-fold nature of the problem requires changes on the server end, as well as fixes to iOS, to be delivered in "a future software update"...
Apple clueless on iMessage purgatory syndrome
Apple's iMessage platform is great for heavy texters. Integrated deeply into the bowels of the operating system, iMessage simply disappears so normals are completely oblivious to the fact they're actually using the system. When you start typing a recipient's name in the stock Messages app in iOS or OS X, iMessage checks with Apple to see if a person has iMessage enabled.
If so, the chat bubble turns blue to indicate that the message will be sent as an iMessage, thereby bypassing your carrier's SMS service. Problems arise when you switch to another smartphone platform only to discover that your phone number has not been removed from your Apple ID.
As a result, this could turn your phone number into a black hole for text messages...
Google Glass getting iPhone SMS alerts and agenda view later this week
If you're among early adopters who dropped $1,500 for a Google Glass when Google for a single day opened up its Glass Explorer program to everyone, you'll be delighted to learn that your pricey smart googles will soon be able to display notifications for incoming iPhone text messages in your field of vision.
In addition, a new Calendar card will also launch later this week, allowing you to interact with calendar items on your timeline.
Google's recently upgraded its Glass software to Android KitKat, allowing them to "bring you faster updates" so these upcoming goodies are part of the new rapid development and roll-out process...
How to send group text messages on iPhone
We all know how to send an SMS or iMessage to a group of friends: open up the Messages application and type in the name of the contacts you want to include in this group message. This is fine if you want to send a text message to just a handful of contacts, but what if you want to send a message to 25 contacts, for example? Adding each of them to the group chat could be a time-consuming process.
As always, the App Store can provide a solution to this problem. We will show you how to text message a group of contacts on your iPhone in a quick and efficient manner. To do so, we'll be using our application called Contact Groups, an app we developed ourselves. There are other applications that can streamline your group messaging, but we'll be using Contact Groups as it is a free alternative that works really well for what we want to accomplish.