Chapter 6

Texting 1, 2, 3: Messages and Notes

In This Chapter

Sending and receiving SMS (text) messages

Sending and receiving MMS (multimedia) messages

Sending and receiving voice and video iMessages

Using the Notes app

If you’ve never used an intelligent virtual keyboard, you will probably feel awkward typing on your iPhone in the beginning. Within a few days, however, many iPhone users report that they have become not only comfortable using the virtual keyboard but also proficient virtual typists as well. And with iOS 8’s new Quick Type predictive keyboard, typing on a slab of glass has never been easier.

In this chapter, we focus on two iPhone apps that rely on keyboard input: Messages and Notes. By the time you finish this chapter, we think you’ll feel comfortable and proficient typing messages and notes, too.

Getting the iMessage

The Messages app lets you exchange short text messages with any cellphone that supports the SMS protocol. You can also send and receive MMS messages, which can include pictures, contacts, videos, audio recordings, and locations, with any cellphone that supports the MMS protocol.

SMS is the acronym for the Short Message Service protocol; MMS is the acronym for the Multimedia Messaging Service protocol. Most phones sold today support one or both protocols.

In addition to the traditional SMS and MMS protocols offered by the wireless carriers, iOS 7 and higher support iMessage, an Apple-provided service that lets you send and receive unlimited messages with text, pictures, contacts, videos, and locations. The good news is that although the wireless operators all charge something for SMS or MMS services, iMessages are free when using Wi-Fi. If you use cellular service, there’s no per-message charge, but an iMessage may still cost you because you’re using cellular data from your plan’s allotment.

If you have a limited data plan, you can turn off the Cellular Data option (in the Settings app’s Cellular section) to force Messages (and all other data-using apps) to use only Wi-Fi.

The bad news is that you can share iMessages only with folks using Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac) running iOS 5 or higher or OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion or higher. And, if no Wi-Fi connection is available, the message is sent as a standard MMS or SMS message via your wireless carrier (and subject to the usual text message charges).

You can turn off the Send as SMS feature if you like, which may be a good idea unless you have an unlimited messaging plan. Do so by tapping Settings⇒Messages and then tapping the Send as SMS switch to off.

Before we get to the part where you send or receive messages, let’s go over some messaging basics:

• Both sender and receiver need either an SMS- or an MMS-enabled mobile phone or an Apple device with iOS 5 or higher (and, of course, an Internet connection). Your iPhone qualifies, as do almost any mobile phones made in the past few years, as well as iPads and iPod touches running iOS 5 or higher and Macs running OS X 10.8 or higher. Keep in mind that if you send messages to folks using a phone that doesn’t support SMS or MMS or to those who don’t have an appropriate Apple device, they may never get your message or even know you sent it.
• Some phones (not the iPhone, of course) limit SMS messages to 160 characters. If you try to send a longer message to one of these phones, your message may be truncated or split into multiple shorter messages, which each count as one SMS message unless you have an unlimited plan. Furthermore, when you send an SMS message to multiple recipients, you’re charged for each message. It’s a good idea to keep SMS messages brief (and use them sparingly unless you have an unlimited plan).

  The Messages app can count characters for you. To enable this feature, tap the Settings icon on your Home screen, tap the Messages icon, and then enable Character Count. Now when you type a line or more of text, you’ll see the number of characters you’ve typed so far, a slash, and then the number 160 (the character limit on some mobile phones, as just described) directly above the Send button.

  The character count feature is disabled for iMessages sent to other iDevices, which makes sense because iMessages have no length limit.

• Regardless of which carrier you choose, you’ll encounter a bewildering array of pricing options. If you don’t subscribe to a messaging plan from your wireless operator — either a stand-alone plan or in a bundle — you’ll pay 20¢ or 30¢ per SMS or MMS message sent or received. Ouch!

  Each individual message in a conversation counts against this total, even if it’s only a one-word reply such as “OK,” or “CUL8R” (which is teenager-speak for “see you later”).

• SMS and MMS messages require access to your wireless operator’s cellular network. iMessages, on the other hand, can be sent and received over a cellular network or a Wi-Fi network.

Okay, now that we have those details out of the way, let’s move on to how to send a message.

You send me: Sending text messages

Tap the Messages icon on the Home screen to launch the Messages app, and then tap the little pencil-and-paper icon (shown in the margin) in the top-right corner of the screen to start a new text message.

At this point, the To field is active and awaiting your input. You can do three things at this point:

• If the recipient isn’t in your Contacts list, type his or her cellphone number or email address (iMessage users only).
• If the recipient is in your Contacts list, type the first few letters of the name. A list of matching contacts appears. Scroll through it if necessary and tap the name of the contact.

  The more letters you type, the shorter the list becomes. And, after you’ve tapped the name of a contact, you can begin typing another name so you can send the message to multiple recipients at once.

• Tap the blue + icon on the right side of the To field to select a name from your Contacts list.

A fourth option is available if you want to compose the message first and address it later. Tap inside the text-entry field (the white rectangular area just above the keyboard between the camera icon and the microphone icon) to activate it, and then type your message. When you’ve finished typing, tap the To field and use one of the preceding techniques to address your message.

When you’ve finished addressing and composing, tap the Send button to send your message on its merry way. And that’s all there is to it; you’ve sent a text message.

Alert: You’ve got messages

Your iPhone can alert you to new messages with an audio alert, an on-screen alert, or both.

If you want to hear a sound when a message arrives, go to the Home screen and tap Settings⇒Sounds⇒Text Tone, and then tap one of the available sounds. You can audition any sound in the list by tapping it.

You hear the sounds when you audition them in the Settings app, even if you have the ring/silent switch set to silent. After you exit the Settings app, however, you won’t hear a sound when a message arrives if the ring/silent switch is set to silent or the Do Not Disturb feature is enabled.

If you don’t want to hear an alert when a message arrives, instead of tapping one of the listed sounds, tap the first item in the list: None.

You can also assign a custom alert sound to anyone in your Contacts list. Follow the instructions for assigning a custom ringtone (see Chapter 4), but instead of tapping Ringtone, tap the item directly below it, Text Tone.

In addition to playing a sound when a new message arrives, your iPhone can also display several types of on-screen alerts. To enable or disable these visual alerts, tap Settings⇒Notifications⇒Messages. You see the screen shown on the left in Figure 6-1. Flick upward on the screen to scroll downward and view the additional items shown on the right in Figure 6-1.

What happens when you receive a new message depends on how you’ve set your notification options, so let’s take a look at them as they appear on the screen, starting at the top:

• Allow Notifications: This setting is the master on/off switch for Messages notifications in Notification Center. Turn it on if you want to see ’em there; turn it off if you don’t.
• Show in Notification Center: Decide whether you want to see 0, 1, 5, or 10 recent items in Notification Center.

  Swipe downward from the top of any screen to see Notification Center. Note, too, that on-screen alerts are not affected by turning this setting on or off. Rather, the Notification Center on/off switch determines whether or not notifications from the Messages app appear in Notification Center. The upshot is that if you choose banners or alerts as the Alert Style, you’ll still see a banner or an alert on the screen when a new message arrives, but you won’t see it in Notification Center.

• Notification Sound: Tap this setting to change the sound you hear when a new message arrives. (Or set it to None.)

  

• Badge App Icon: This on/off setting determines whether you see a badge with the number of unread new messages on the Messages icon.
• Show on Lock Screen: Enable this setting to see new message alerts when your iPhone is locked (refer to Figure 6-2, left).
• Alert Style When Unlocked: Tap this setting to select the appearance of on-screen notifications when your iPhone is unlocked. With the Banners option, a banner appears at the top of the screen, as shown in Figure 6-3, and then disappears (with a slick little animation) after a few seconds. The Alerts option requires you to tap a button to proceed, as shown in Figure 6-4. And, of course, the None option means neither a banner nor an alert appears when a new message arrives.

  Swipe the gray bar at the bottom of a banner downward toward the bottom of the screen to reply. The keyboard will appear and you can type your response immediately without opening the Messages app.

• Show Preview: This setting determines whether or not you see the first line of the message and a picture from the message in banners or alerts.
• Show Alerts From: Tap to select either Everyone or My Contacts.
• Repeat Alerts: Tap this setting to select the number of times an alert is repeated. Your choices are Never, Once, Twice, 3 Times, 5 Times, 10 Times, or at two-minute intervals.

  

Notifications on the Lock screen look like the one in Figure 6-2, left, regardless of whether you’ve selected banners or alerts. The notifications remain on the Lock screen until you swipe the Slide to Unlock slider at the bottom of the screen or slide one of the notification icons to reply. If you’ve enabled your iPhone’s passcode feature (which we recommend highly), you will need to enter your passcode after you swipe.

Being a golden receiver: Reading and replying to text messages

You can read and reply to a new message notification in many ways:

• If your iPhone is locked when you receive a notification, slide the notification icon from left to right to launch the Messages app.
• If your iPhone is unlocked when you receive a banner notification, swipe the gray bar at the bottom of the banner downward.

  

  

• If your iPhone is unlocked when you receive an alert notification, tap the Reply button.

To reply to the message on the screen, tap the text-entry field to the left of the Send button, and the keyboard appears. Type your reply and then tap Send.

To read or reply to a message after you’ve dismissed its notification, tap the Messages icon. If a message other than the one you’re interested in appears on the screen when you launch the Messages app, tap Messages in the top-left corner of the screen, and then tap the sender’s name; that person’s messages appear on the screen.

If you don’t see a Send button, try typing one or more characters. That action will replace the microphone icon next to the text-entry field with a Send button.

iOS 8 adds an easy way to send voice messages instead of text. Just press and hold down the little microphone icon to the right of the text-entry field and a gray overlay appears, as shown in Figure 6-5. When you’ve finished speaking, swipe upward to send your voice message or swipe left to cancel.

You can also tap the microphone key next to the space bar on the keyboard (not the one next to the text-entry field) and then speak your reply to Siri, who will translate it to text and type it in the text-entry field for you. (To find out more about Siri, your intelligent assistant, see Chapter 5.)

Your SMS conversations are saved as a series of text bubbles. Your messages appear on the right side of the screen in blue bubbles; the other person’s messages appear on the left in gray bubbles, as shown in Figure 6-6.

Did you notice that the words “dinner Sunday” are blue instead of black and underlined? If you tap blue, underlined words, additional options appear on the screen, enabling you to create a calendar event, display the date on the calendar, or copy the event to the Clipboard (for pasting elsewhere).

Moving right along, you can delete conversations in two ways:

• If you’re viewing the conversation: Double-tap any text bubble and then tap the More button that appears. You’ll see a little circle to the left of each text bubble. Tap a text bubble that you want to delete and a blue check mark appears in the circle. When you’ve added a blue check mark to all the text bubbles you want to delete, tap the blue trashcan icon at the bottom-left of the screen. Or, to delete the entire conversation in one fell swoop, tap the blue Delete All button in the top-left corner.

  If you want to forward to another mobile phone or Apple device user all or part of a conversation (as an SMS, MMS, or iMessage message), follow the same procedure (that is, double-tap a text bubble, tap More, and then tap the text bubbles that you want to forward). Now, instead of tapping the blue trashcan at the bottom-left of the screen, tap the blue arrow at the bottom-right of the screen. The contents of the text bubbles with check marks will be copied to a new text message; specify a recipient and then tap Send.

• If you’re viewing the list of text messages: Tap the Edit button at the top-left of the Messages list, and a circle appears to the left of each conversation. Tap the circle for each conversation you want to delete, and then tap the Delete button at the bottom right to delete those conversations.

  To delete a single conversation, swipe the conversation from right to left, and then tap the red Delete button.

You can now tell Messages to either keep messages forever or automatically delete them after 30 days or one year. For details, see the article on smart messaging tricks at www.dummies.com/extras.

MMS: Like SMS with media

To send a picture or video in a message, follow the instructions for sending a text message, but before you tap Send, tap the camera icon to the left of the text-entry field. You’ll then have the option of using an existing picture or video or taking a new one. You can add text to photos or videos (by typing in the text-entry field) before or after you select them. When you’re finished, tap the Send button.

If you receive a picture or video (or voice message) in an iMessage, it appears in a bubble just like text. Tap the element to see it full-screen.

A new option in Settings⇒Messages is called Raise to Listen. If you enable it, you can quickly listen to and reply to a voice message by merely raising your iPhone to your ear. Neat!

Tap the share icon in the lower-left corner (and shown in the margin) for options including Message, Email, Twitter, Facebook, Save Image, Assign to Contact, Copy, and Print. If you have an iPhone 5 or newer, you’ll also see an option to share the photo or video via AirDrop (see Chapter 7).

If you don’t see the share icon, tap the picture or video once and the icon will magically appear.

When you’re viewing an image or a video, tap the list icon in the lower-right corner (and shown in the margin) to see every image from this conversation. Tap a picture to view it; swipe left or right to see earlier or later images or videos.

For a list of smart messaging tips, visit www.dummies.com/extras/iphone.

Those are all the general Messages tips and hints we have, but we do have one more Messages-related feature to share with you: the joys of group messaging.

Group messaging has never been better

If one-on-one conversations in Messages are good, conversing with a group of people is even better.

To start a group conversation, just add two or more people in the To field. Other than that, group conversations work the same way as individual messages, so everything in this chapter works for group conversations, too. But we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention a couple of cool new iOS 8 innovations that make group messaging even better.

Tap Details at the upper-right corner of any group conversation. In addition to the features described previously (initiate a phone call or FaceTime chat, send your current location, and so on), you see a Leave This Conversation button (below the Do Not Disturb switch). If you’ve wished you could bail out of a multiperson conversation, you know what a big deal this is.

Now imagine that you’re part of a lively conversation with a handful of friends. You don’t want to leave, but you do want to silence its all-too-frequent notifications. Tap Details in the upper-right corner of any group conversation, and then enable Do Not Disturb.

You are now an official messaging maven.

Taking Note of Notes

The Notes app creates text notes that you can save or send through email. To create a note, first tap the Notes icon on the Home screen, and then tap the New button in the top-right corner to start a new note. The virtual keyboard appears, as shown in Figure 6-7. Type the note. When you’re finished, tap the Done button in the top-right corner to save the note.

After a note is saved, you can tap the share icon at the bottom of the screen to share the note via AirDrop (iPhone 5 or later); send it as an iMessage or email; post it to Facebook, Twitter, or other social media; copy it to the Clipboard for pasting elsewhere; or print it.

To delete a note, tap the trashcan icon at the bottom of the screen.

And finally, tap the Notes button at the top-left corner of the screen to see a list of all your notes, as shown in Figure 6-8. Then just tap a note to open it for viewing or editing.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t remind you that you can sync notes with your computer (see Chapter 3). And if you’ve enabled note syncing for more than one account (tap Settings⇒Mail, Contacts, Calendars), you’ll see a Folders button at the top of the Notes list screen (refer to Figure 6-8). Tap this Folders button and the Folders screen appears. Tap All Notes to display all notes from all accounts, or tap a specific account to see notes associated with only that account.

An account refers to a Microsoft Exchange, iCloud, Apple ID, Gmail, Yahoo!, AOL, or other account that offers a notes feature.

One last comment: While working with a note, you can swipe left or right to view the preceding or next note.

And that’s all she, er, we, wrote. And you now know all you need to know about Notes! Onward!