Even if you use the Messages app on your iPhone every day, chances are you don’t know everything it’s capable of. To fully appreciate the app, BGR: rounded up some of the best-kept secrets that Messages has to offer users. Here they are.
1. Track direct flights: No other apps are required. If you have a friend or family member flying, you can see where they are as long as you know the flight number. Imagine the flight is LA8085 and they just sent you one. Long press the message and click Preview Flight. You will see everything you need to know about it.
2. Unlock animations with secret codesDepending on the phrase you send in iMessage, you can get special animations. While you can long-press the Send button to choose the right animation before sending a message, you can also trigger them depending on the message. Here are some examples.
- Happy birthday! – bubbles will appear
- Congratulations: – confetti rain
- Happy new year! – fireworks
- Happy Chinese New Year! – red explosion
- Pew pew – laser light show
3. Unread message. One of the best features of the Messages app on your iPhone running iOS 16 is the ability to mark a message as unread. If you’ve already read it, but don’t have time to reply right now, you can leave a notification mark on it. To mark messages as unread, touch and hold the conversation in the app’s inbox and select Mark as unread.
4. Stop spam messages. iMessage has a great feature that can split your Messages inbox by different senders. In the Settings app, tap Messages, then turn on Filter Unknown Senders. Scroll up, tap Notifications, Customize notifications and turn off Unknown senders. This way you won’t be notified of spam or messages you don’t recognize. You just need to check the Unknown Senders tab from time to time.
5. Try Visual Look Up on sent messages. Visual Look Up works like Google Lens, which can tell you what’s in the picture. When you receive a photo in a chat, tap it and choose to view the information that appears. Siri will then tell you what is depicted, such as a historical site, a breed of dog, and so on.