iPad: The Missing Manual (2014)

Part 1. The iPad Basics

Chapter 5. Texting & iMessages

Once you’ve savored the exhilaration of making phone calls on the iPad, you’re ready to graduate to one of its fancier tricks: text messages. There are two kinds: traditional (for sending messages to cellphones) and Apple-flavored (for sending messages to other Apple equipment).

Of course, in order to send any kind of message, your iPad has to be online; it has to be in a WiFi hotspot or (if you have a cellular iPad) it has to have cell service.

Text Messages (SMS)

SMS stands for Short Messaging Service, but it’s commonly just called texting. A text message is a very short note (under 160 characters—a sentence or two) that you shoot from one device to another. What’s so great about it?

§ Like a phone call, it’s immediate. You get the message off your chest right now.

§ As with email, the recipient doesn’t have to answer immediately. The message waits for him even when his phone or tablet is turned off.

§ Unlike a phone call, it’s nondisruptive. You can send someone a text message without worrying that he’s in a movie, a meeting, or anywhere else where holding a phone up to his head and talking would be frowned upon. (And the other person can answer nondisruptively, too, by sending a text message back.)

§ You have a written record of the exchange. There’s no mistaking what the person meant. (Well, at least not because of sound quality. Understanding the texting shorthand that’s evolved—“C U 2mrO,” and so on—is another matter entirely.)

§ You can send pictures and videos in text messages, too. They’re sometimes called MMS, or multimedia messaging service.

It’s an unassailable fact: Your iPad doesn’t have its own phone number. Therefore, it shouldn’t be able to send and receive texts.

Fortunately, it can, using any of three methods:

§ iMessages. Whenever your iPad is online, it can send and receive unlimited free messages to other Apple gadgets (iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches, Macs).

§ Via iPhone. When your iPad is on the same WiFi hotspot as your iPhone, you can send real, actual SMS text messages to and from other phones of any brand. (It’s the same trick that you can use to make phone calls, as described on One More Safety Measure.)

§ Using an app. Certain apps give your iPad a phone number, so you can send and receive actual text messages whenever you’re online.

This chapter covers these three methods one at a time.

iMessages

This iOS feature should interest you—if it doesn’t, in fact, make you giggle like a schoolgirl.

An iMessage looks and works exactly like a text message, of the sort you might send on a cellphone. You send iMessages and receive them in the same app (Messages). They show up in the same window. You can send the same kinds of things: text, photos, videos, contacts, map locations, whatever. You send and receive them using exactly the same techniques.

The big difference? iMessages go exclusively between Apple products: iPads, iPhones, iPod Touches, and Macs.

So why would Apple reinvent the text-messaging wheel? Because iMessages offer some huge advantages over regular text messages:

§ iMessages are free! You don’t have to pay for them. They look and work exactly like text messages, but they’re transferred over the Internet (WiFi or, on a cellular iPad, cellular) instead of your cell company’s voice airwaves.

§ When you’re typing back and forth with somebody, you don’t have to wonder whether, during a silence, he’s typing a response to you or just ignoring you; when he’s typing a response, you see an ellipsis (…), as shown on the next page.

§ You don’t have to wonder if the other guy has received your message. A tiny, light-gray word “Delivered” appears under each message you send, briefly, to let you know that the other guy’s device received it.

§ You can even turn on a “read receipt” feature that lets the other guy know when you’ve actually seen a message he sent. He’ll see a notation that says, for example, “Read: 2:34 PM.”

§ Your history of iMessages shows up on all your i-gadgets; they’re synchronized through your iCloud account. In other words, you can start a chat with somebody using your iPad and later pick up your Mac laptop at home and carry right on from where you stopped (in its Messages program).

As a result, you always have a record of your iMessages. You have a copyable, searchable transcript on your computer.

§ In iOS 8, iMessages can be more than text. They can be little audio recordings, video recordings, or photos that you take on the spot, within the Messages app.

Sending an iMessage

iMessages happen automatically. All you do is open Messages and create a text message as usual. If your recipient is using an Apple gadget (with iOS 5 or later, or a Mac using OS X Mountain Lion or later)…and has an iCloud account…and hasn’t turned off iMessages, then your iPad sends your message as an iMessage automatically. It somehow knows.

You’ll know, too, because the light-gray text in the typing box says “iMessage.” And each message you send shows up in a blue speech bubble. The Send button is blue, too.

In fact, when you’re addressing the new text message, the names that appear in blue represent people with iMessages gadgets, so you know in advance who’s cool and who’s not (previous page). (The green names are those who do not have iMessage. The gray ones—well, your iPad doesn’t know yet.)

Receiving an iMessage

When you get an iMessage, the iPad plays a sound. It’s a shiny glockenspiel ding, unless you’ve changed the standard sound or assigned a different text tone to this specific person.

The iPad also displays the name of the sender and the message. Unless you’ve fooled around with the Notifications settings, the message appears at the top of the screen, disappearing momentarily on its own, so as not to interrupt what you’re doing. (You can also flick it up and away if it’s blocking something on your screen.)

Or, if the iPad was asleep, it lights up long enough to display the message right on its Unlock screen (below). You can unlock the iPad and jump directly to the message by swiping your finger right across the message on the Lock screen.

If you have changed the options in Notifications, then your text message might appear in a white bubble in the center of the screen, complete with Close and Reply buttons. If you turned off Show Preview (Bonus Settings in a Place You Didn’t Expect), then you don’t see the message itself—only the name or number of the sender. And if you’ve turned off View in Lock Screen, then, sure enough, the text message does not appear on the Lock screen.

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The Messages icon on the Home screen bears a little circled number “badge” letting you know how many new messages are waiting for you.

Once you tap a message notification to open, you see Apple’s vision of what a text-message conversation should look like. Incoming messages and your replies are displayed as though they’re cartoon speech balloons (Sending an iMessage).

To respond to the message, tap in the text box at the bottom of the screen. The iPad keyboard appears. Type away, or dictate a response, and then tap Send.

If your buddy replies, then the balloon-chat continues, scrolling up the screen.

And now, a selection of juicy iMessage tips:

§ The last 50 exchanges appear here. If you want to see even older ones, scroll to the very top (which you can do by tapping the top edge of the screens) and then drag downward.

And by the way—if the keyboard is blocking your view of the conversation, swipe downward on the messages to hide it.

§ Links that people send you in text messages actually work. For example, if someone sends you a Web address, tap to open it in Safari. If someone sends a street address, tap it to open it in Maps. And if someone sends an email address, tap it to open an outgoing message.

§ Messages remembers the exact time that each text was sent or received. If you slide your finger leftward and hold it still, this hidden column of time stamps slides into view. Release your finger to snap them back.

Five Clever Options

In iOS 8, a new screen offers five options that you may find handy in the midst of a texting conversation. To see them, tap Details at the top of the screen. Here’s what you see now:

§ Call. If all this fussy typing is driving you nuts, you can jump onto a phone or video call. On the Details screen, a little strip of icons awaits. They include (conclude the transaction by voice, with a FaceTime audio call), (place a FaceTime video call), and (open this person’s full Contacts card, loaded with different ways to call, text, or email).

§ Send My Current Location (now). Hit this button to transmit a map to the other person, showing exactly where you are, so that person can come and pick you up, meet you for drinks, rescue you when your car doesn’t start, or whatever.

If your correspondent has an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, she can open the map you’ve sent in Maps, ready to guide her with driving directions. If she’s one of the unenlightened—she owns some non-Apple phone—then she gets what’s called a Location vCard, which she may be able to open into a mapping app on her own phone.

NOTE

If Location Services isn’t turned on (Privacy), the iPad may ask you to turn it on now. After all, you can’t very well share your location if your phone has no idea where you are.

§ Share My Location (continuously). If you’re moving around, and you have a cellular-model iPad, you may prefer this option. It sends your whereabouts to your correspondent—and keeps that location updated as you meander through the city, for a period of time that you specify (One Hour, Until End of Day, or Indefinitely). That’s great when you’re club-hopping, say, and trying to help some buddies catch up with you. As your location changes, the map you sent to your recipient updates itself.

At any time—even before the hour, day, or eternity is up—you can stop broadcasting your location to this person; just open the Details screen again and tap Stop Sharing My Location.

§ Do Not Disturb. Otherwise known as “mute,” “enough already,” or “shut up.” It makes your tablet stop ringing or responding with every new message from this person or group. Handy when you’re trying to get work done, when you’re being bombarded by silly group chitchat, or when someone’s stalking you.

§ Attachments. Crazy cool! Here are all the photos and other attachments you’ve ever exchanged with this texting correspondent, going back to forever.

You can tap one of these tiles to open it. Or, if you hold your finger down on it, you get choices like Copy, Delete, and More. (There’s usually nothing new under More except Save Image, which copies the texted photo into your Photos collection.)

The Text List

What’s cool is that the iPad retains all these exchanges. You can review them or resume them at any time by tapping Messages on the Home screen. A list of text message conversations appears; a blue dot indicates conversations that contain new messages (next page, right).

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If you’ve sent a message to a certain group of people, you can address a new note to the same group by tapping the old message’s row here.

503 delete en masse

The truth is, these listings represent people, not conversations. For example, if you had a message exchange with Chris last week, then a quick way to send a new text message to Chris (even on a totally different subject) is to open that “conversation” and simply send a “reply.” The iPad saves you the administrative work of creating a new message, choosing a recipient, and so on.

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Hey, you can search text messages! At the very top of the list, there’s a search box. You can actually find text inside your message collection.

If having these old exchanges hanging around presents a security (or marital) risk, you can delete them in either of two ways:

§ Delete an entire conversation. Swipe away the conversation. At the list of conversations, swipe your finger leftward across the conversation’s name. That makes the Delete confirmation button appear.

Alternate method: Above the Messages list, tap Edit, tap to select () the conversations you want to ditch, and then tap the Delete button.

§ Delete just one text. Open the conversation so that you’re viewing the cascade of bubbles representing the texts back and forth.

Now, this technique is a little weird, but here goes: Hold down your finger on the individual message you want to delete (or double-tap it). When the little black bar of options appears, tap More.

Now you can delete all the exchanges simultaneously (tap Delete All) or vaporize only particularly incriminating messages. To do that, tap the selection circles for the individual balloons you want to nuke, putting checks () by them; then tap the button to delete them all at once. TapDelete Message to confirm.

NOTE

Interestingly, you can also forward some messages you’ve selected in this way. When you tap the Forward button (), a new outgoing text message appears, ready for you to specify the new recipient.

Mark All as Read

Here’s a handy new option in iOS 8: When you get off the plane, home from your honeymoon, you might see Messages bristling with notifications about messages you missed. Now you can mark them all as read at once, so the blue dots don’t distract you anymore.

To do that, on the message-list screen, tap Edit, then Read All.

Sending a New Message

If you want to text somebody you’ve texted before, the quickest way, as noted above, is simply to resume one of the “conversations” already listed in the Messages list.

You can also tap a person’s name in Contacts, or next to a listing in Recents or Favorites, to open the Info screen; tap Send Message.

Actually, options to fire off text messages lurk all over the iPad—anytime you see the Share () button, which is frequently. The resulting Share screen includes options like Email, Twitter, Facebook—and Message. Tapping Message sends you back to Messages, where the photo, video, page, or other item is ready to send. (More on multimedia messages shortly.)

In other words, sending a text message to anyone who lives in your iPad is only a couple of taps away.

NOTE

You can tap that button to add another recipient for this same message. Repeat as necessary; they’ll all get the same message.

Yet another way to start: Tap the button at the top of the Messages screen.

In any case, the message composition screen is waiting for you now. You’re ready to type (or dictate) and send!

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If you drag your finger down the screen, you hide the keyboard. Doing that makes much more of the screen available to display the text-message conversation.

Picture, Audio, or Video Messages

To send a photo or a video by iMessage, tap the next to the box where you type your messages. Three useful options appear:

§ Recent photos. First, you see a scrolling row of the most recent photos and videos added on your iPad. This new iOS 8 feature is incredibly smart; it should be obvious that most of the time, the photo you want to send by text is one of the last ones you took. Tap a photo here—or more than one—and tap Send 1 Photo (or whatever the number is.)

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You can scroll these photo miniatures to the left to see the older ones.

§ Photo Library. To transmit a photo or video that’s already on your iPad (but not one of the most recent), you can tap Photo Library; your Photos app opens automatically, showing all your photos and videos, as described in Chapter 8. Tap the one you want, and then tap Choose.

§ Take Photo or Video opens the Camera app so that you can take a new picture or snag a video clip. It’s just like the Camera app described in Chapter 8, except that only two modes are available: Video and Photo.

Once you’ve captured the shot (or the clip), you can choose either Retake (if the result was no good) or Use Photo (if you want to send it). Then hit Send.

You now return to your message conversation in progress—but now that photo or video appears inside the Send box. Type a caption or a comment, if you like. Then tap Send to fire it off to your buddy.

Capturing Messages and Files

In general, text messages are fleeting; most people have no idea how they might capture them and save them forever.

Some of the stuff in those text messages is easy to capture, though. For example, if you’re on the receiving end of a photo or a video, tap the small preview in the speech bubble. It opens at full-screen size so you can have a better look at it—and if it’s a video, there’s a button so you can play it. Either way, if the picture or video is good enough to preserve, tap the button. You’re offered a Save Image or Save Video button; tap to add the photo or video to your iPad’s collection.

If someone sends you contact information (a phone number, for example), you can add it to your address book. Just tap inside that bubble and then tap either Create New Contact or Add to Existing Contact.

If you’d like to preserve the actual text messages, you have a few options:

§ Copy them individually. Double-tap a text bubble, and then tap Copy. At this point, you can paste that one message into, for example, an email message.

§ Forward them. Double-tap a message to make the button bar appear. Tap More, and then tap the selection dots beside all the messages you want to pass on. Now you can tap the Forward () button. All the selected messages go along for the ride in a single consolidated message to a new text-message addressee.

§ Save the iMessages. If you have a Mac, then your iMessages (that is, notes to and from other Apple gadgets) show up in the Messages chat program. You can save them or copy them there.

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Behind the scenes, the Mac stores all your chat transcripts in a hidden folder, as special text files. To get there, press the Option key as you open the Go menu; choose Go→Library. The transcripts are in date-stamped folders in the Messages→Archive folder.

§ Use an app. There’s no built-in way to save regular text messages in bulk. There are, however, apps that can do this for you, like DiskAid (for Windows) or iBackup Viewer (free for the Mac). They work from the invisible backup files that you create when you sync your phone with iTunes.

Instant Audio, Video, and Photos

In iOS 8, some new controls are available whenever you’re exchanging iMessages. As in super-popular apps like WhatsApp, they let you quickly exchange audio, video, or still pictures as easily as you’d type something.

Yes, of course, you’ve always been able to send multimedia goodies while texting. The difference in iOS 8 is the convenience of doing so; you can record and send a picture, video, or audio clip with a single slide of your thumb. It’s so effortless that the process is transformed.

It goes like this.

Audio Texting: The New Walkie-Talkie

Hold your finger down on the button at the right end of the Messages text box. At the sound of the ding, say something—and then slide your finger upward to the button. What you said is instantly transmitted to your buddy as an audio recording. You don’t have to fuss with a bunch of Start, Stop, or Send buttons.

It’s a whole new form of quick exchanges—something that combines the best of a walkie-talkie (instant audio) with the best of text messages (you can listen and reply at your leisure).

Sometimes, an audio recording is just better than a typed message, especially when music, a child, an animal, or a lot of emotion in your voice is involved. You could probably argue that audio texting is also better than typed texting when you’re driving, jogging, or operating industrial machinery.

Now then: That business about holding down the button, talking, and then sliding up is probably how you’ll always do it—once you become friends with this feature. But, at the outset, you can proceed more cautiously.

If, after speaking, you simply lift your finger from the glass, you can tap to review your recording before sending it. Or you can tap the to cancel the whole thing.

But, really, it’s that hold down/speak/slide up business that makes audio transmissions so much fun.

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Audio eats up a lot more space on your tablet than text. If you do a lot of audio messaging, then, over time, those audio snippets can fill up your storage.

That’s why iOS 8 comes set to delete every audio message 2 minutes after you send or receive it. If that prospect worries you, then visit Settings→Messages. You can tap Expire and change that setting to Never.

Even if you don’t change this setting, you’re free to preserve especially good audio messages forever; just tap the tiny Keep button that appears below each one.

Video Messaging

To the left of the typing box, there’s a little icon. If you tap it, you’re offered the chance to take a photo or choose an existing one.

But if you hold your finger down on this , the recording palette appears, and you can take a video clip and send it instantly. In slow motion, the process goes like this:

1. Hold your finger down on the . When the recording palette appears, you can lift your finger.

NOTE

In iOS 8.1, the recording palette appears only when the iPad is upright (in portrait orientation)—not when you’re holding it sideways (landscape).

2. Tap the button. Now you’re recording video. Tap to stop.

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If you prefer, you can just hold down the for as long as you want to record; stop by lifting your finger.

3. Tap the to play back your video for review, or tap to send it.

Now, all of that is the slow, timid way to send a video. Once you get the hang of it, you can do it all with a single finger motion, like this:

Hold your finger down on the . Without lifting your finger, slide onto the to record video. Still without lifting, slide onto the and release. The phone sends the freshly recorded video.

That method is so smooth and continuous that it makes video snippets a seamless part of the texting conversation. It also puts you in a better position to capture video of things that happen suddenly and instantly—a plane landing in the Hudson River, say.

NOTE

Like audio snippets, video clips consume a lot of phone storage. So here again, iOS 8 ordinarily deletes video messages 2 minutes after you send or receive them. You can, if you prefer, tap Settings→Messages→Expire and change that setting to Never.

Even if you don’t change the setting, you can always hang onto certain video messages; tap the tiny Keep button that appears below them.

Photo Messaging

You already know what happens when you tap the button: The iPad lets you take, or choose, a photo to send.

But if you hold your finger down on that button, you can take and transmit photos with a single finger swipe, too. Once again, here’s the slow version:

1. Hold your finger down on the . When the recording palette appears, you can lift your finger.

2. Aim the camera, and then tap . The phone snaps the picture and sends it, all at once.

As you get better, you can do it all in one quick motion: Hold your finger on the , aim the camera, slide up to the button, and let go. Snap and send.

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The on the recording palette doesn’t give you the chance to review the photo before you snap it. If you prefer that method, then tap the icon instead of holding it down, and proceed as described on Mark All as Read.

iMessage Settings

If you tap Settings→Messages, you’ll stumble upon some intriguing messaging options:

§ iMessage. This is the on/off switch for the entire iMessages feature. It’s hard to imagine why you wouldn’t want this feature available, but you know—whatever floats your boat.

§ Send Read Receipts. When you turn this option on, your iMessage correspondents will know when you’ve seen their messages. A tiny word “Read” will appear beneath each sent message that you’ve actually seen. Turn this off only if it deprives you of the excuse for not responding promptly (“Hey, I never even saw your message!”).

§ Send & Receive. Tap here to specify what cellphone numbers and email addresses you want to register with iMessages. (Your laptop, iPad, and iPod Touch do not have phone numbers, which is why iMessages gives you the option of using an email address.)

When people send iMessages to you, they can use any of the numbers or addresses you turn on here. That’s the only time these numbers and addresses matter. You see the same messages exactly the same way on all your Apple gadgets, no matter what email address or phone number the sender used for you.

(If you scroll down on this screen, you’ll see the Start new conversations from options. This is where you specify which number or address others will see when you initiate the message. It really doesn’t make much difference which one you choose.)

§ Keep Messages. How long do you want your messages to hang around on your phone? This is a question of privacy, of storage, and of your personality. In any case, here’s where you get a choice of 30 Days, 1 Year, or Forever.

§ Expire. As noted on Video Messaging, iOS 8 ordinarily deletes audio and video messages a couple of minutes after they arrive, to avoid filling up your iPad with old, no longer relevant audio and video files. The two Expire controls here let you turn off that automatic deletion (by choosing Never).

Bonus Settings in a Place You Didn’t Expect

Apple has stashed a few important text-messaging settings in Settings→Notifications→Messages:

§ Allow Notifications. If, in a cranky burst of sensory overload, you want your iPad to stop telling you when new texts come in (with a banner or sound, for example), then turn this off.

§ Show in Notification Center. How many recent text messages should appear in the Notification Center (The Notification Center)?

§ Notification Sound. Tap here to choose a sound for incoming texts to play. (You can also choose a different sound for each person in your address book, as described on Adding to the Contacts List.)

§ Badge App Icon. Would you like a little number like this to appear on the Message app’s icon, showing how many you’ve missed?

§ Show on Lock Screen. Do you want received text messages and iMessages to appear on the screen when it’s locked? If yes, then you can sneak reassuring glances at your tablet without turning it fully on. If no, then you maintain better protection against snoopers who find your iPad on your desk.

§ Alert Style When Unlocked. See What Notifications Look Like for a description of the different banner styles.

§ Show Preview. Usually, when a message arrives, it wakes up your iPad and shows the message contents. Which is great, as long as the message isn’t private and the tablet isn’t lying on the table where everyone can see it. If you turn off Show Preview, though, you’ll see who the message is from but not the actual text of the message (until you tap the notification banner or bubble).

§ Show Alerts from. This option is designed to give you some control over the flood of attention-getting bubbles that appear on your screen. If you choose My Contacts, then you won’t get that chime and bubble when total strangers send iMessages to you.

§ Repeat Alerts. If someone sends you a text message but you don’t tap or swipe to read it, the iPad waits 2 minutes, and then plays the notification sound again. That second chance really helps when, for example, you were in a noisy place and missed the original chime.

But for some people, even one additional reminder isn’t enough. Here you can specify that you want to be re-alerted Twice, 3 Times, 5 Times, or 10 Times. (Or Never, if you don’t want repeated alerts at all.)

Regular Text Messages

Most iPads, most of the time, never send anything but iMessages. They never communicate with any devices except Apple’s.

It is possible, however, for your iPad to exchange regular SMS text messages with regular phones—if you also own an iPhone. Once again, your iPhone acts as a relay station between the cellular world and your iPad.

Here’s how to set it up. First, as usual, the iPad and the phone must be on the same WiFi network and signed into the same iCloud account. Next, on the iPhone, open Settings→Messages. Turn on Text Message Forwarding next to your iPad’s name.

On the iPad, open Messages; a code appears. You’re supposed to type into the corresponding box on your phone:

This same code appears right now on any iPad, Mac, or iPod Touch you own. They, too, will be able to send and receive texts, with your iPhone doing the relaying.

All of this is to prove, really and truly, that you’re the owner of both devices. You wouldn’t want some bad guy reading your text messages, would you?

That’s it—your gadgets are paired. You can now use Messages to send standard text messages to any cellphone. You can also tap and hold on a phone number wherever it appears—in Contacts, in a Spotlight search result, in Safari, in Mail—and choose Send Message from there. And when a text message comes in, a standard iPad notification bubble appears at top right.

The beauty of all this is that your back-and-forths are kept in sync between the iPad and the phone. You can jump between them and continue the texting conversation. (You’ll note that, as usual, the bubbles containing your utterances are green. Blue is reserved for iMessages—that is, messages to other people with iCloud accounts.)

Text Messages Using Apps

OK, so what if you want to send text messages from your iPad to normal phones (not just iPhones)—and you don’t have an iPhone to use as a relay station? You’re still not out of luck.

There are all kinds of sneaky apps that let you send SMS texts for free that don’t require your correspondents to have an Apple device. Here are a couple of examples:

§ Textfree with Voice. It’s an app that gives your iPad its own phone number just for free text or picture messages, so you can send and receive all you want without paying a cent. Incoming voice calls are free, too; you can buy minutes for outgoing calls.

§ Google Voice. This free service has a million great features. But one of the best is that it lets you send and receive free text messages. You can do that from your computer (an amazingly useful feature, actually) at voice.google.com, or by using the free Google Voice app).