These 8 new texting features in iOS 18.2 will make your iPhone texts exciting

When you want to get a point across, simple text isn’t always enough. In person, you could wave your arms or gesture, but until recently, texting someone was like standing still — just plain words without any confirmation. Messages app in iOS 18.2 Now it offers you all kinds of decorations, from broad and Italic To make words explode.

And this is just the beginning of what’s new.

Animated effects and text formatting make chatting more fun, and RCS support means your friends with Android phones can finally send high-resolution photos. If your mind is active late at night, you can schedule text messages to be sent at a reasonable hour without waking anyone up.

And don’t forget the ability to send text messages from the satellite and create your own emojis with it Jinmoji — that Apple intelligence Feature on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, and select iPad models.

Here are eight new features in the Messages app you should know about.

Read more: iOS 18 review: Get ready to customize your iPhone

Also, if you’re just starting out with the new system, be sure to check out The settings you need to change now. And don’t miss this one 10 hidden features in iOS 18.

Thanks to RCS messaging, you can communicate better with Android users

The Rich Communications Services protocol should be added to the messages Reduce friction When sending text messages to friends who have Android phones. It enables read receipts, gives you high-quality image transfers, and end-to-end encryption (but keeps Android message bubbles green).

If your carrier supports RCS, you probably don’t need to do anything to use it. Go to Settings > Apps > Messaging > RCS Messaging And make sure RCS messages It was turned on.

You can also send text messages via satellite

the Emergency SOS via satellite The feature that was introduced with the iPhone 14 was a Literal savior. When you don’t have a cell signal, you can connect to the satellite and exchange SMS messages with emergency responders.

With this infrastructure in place, Apple is opening up the Messages app for non-emergency texts as well. If you’re out of range of cellular or Wi-Fi networks and have an iPhone 14 or later, the Messages app will prompt you to connect to a satellite. As you connect, the dynamic island expands to help you stay oriented toward the satellites above you.

You can then text people as you normally would, and features like emojis and Tapbacks should continue to work. If you want to see a demo of this feature, go to Settings > Apps > Messaging > Satellite messaging > Satellite calling demo. Or just go out into the middle of nowhere and try it for yourself.

You can now format text in messages

I don’t want to be a “typ guy,” but a long-time pet peeve of mine is that one of the only ways to emphasize text in letters is to write it in all caps. We as a society did not develop printing over hundreds of years or invent the most advanced computing devices just to shout at each other via text.

So yeah, I guess I’m that guy. I feel better now because I can express myself using… broad, Italicunderlined and strikethrough text in conversations with my friends who also use iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and MacOS Sequoia.

You can apply formatting to an entire phrase, individual words and letters, or combinations of them, as follows:

1. Write your message.
2. To apply formatting to the entire message, click Format button In the suggestion bar; All your text is highlighted. Or, to add emphasis to just one word, double-click to select the text and then tap Coordination button. You can also choose Text effects From the options that appear above the selection.
3. Click one of the options at the top of the Formatting panel that replaces the keyboard: Bold, Italic, Underlined, or Strikethrough.

If you format a message sent to someone who is using a legacy system, they will only see plain text, which can be confusing if you use strikethrough to indicate deleted words.

You can animate your text messages

This is where I cast aside any claim that I am pro-typography. The selected message, words, or letters can be animated in one of eight styles. Need to deliver some big news with more emphasis on bold text? With iOS 18, there are many new animation options you can add to your text. Large animations expand the size of your messages. Or maybe just pointing out that it’s freezing outside doesn’t convey the teeth-gnashing chill – use the Jitter animation to make the letters jiggle.

Adding animation is as easy as formatting text:

1. Write your message.
2. Click on Coordination In the suggestion bar to select all text. Or select individual words or letters and press this button.
3. Tap an animation style to apply it: Big, Small, Shake, Nod, Explode, Ripple, Bloom, or Jitter.

You can mix animations within the message by making selections and applying different styles to them. However, you cannot apply more than one animation to a selection; A word cannot be shaken and then explode, for example. As with text formatting, the message appears as plain text to anyone not running iOS 18, iPadOS 18, or MacOS Sequoia.

Even with these new features, I want more: Text formatting and Text animation. Currently you can use one or the other. But if Apple engineers can make something as complex as eye tracking for the Vision Pro, they could make it happen in a later update.

You can turn off the animation automatically, if that’s not your thing

Let’s say your friend just installed iOS 18 and wants to try out all the animation effects in a thread of messages, creating a screen full of pulsing text, resizing, shaking, and exploding. Do you think with all those migraine-inducing animations, what did Apple release?

Don’t worry, because you can set the animation so that it doesn’t repeat automatically. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Motion And off Automatic playback of message effects. Your friend can still send animated text that will play once when you receive it, but you won’t experience repeating animations.

You can add any emoji or sticker as a click in messages

Sometimes words are unnecessary. You can reply to someone’s message using the Tapback icon to express love, agreement, disagreement, laughter, alarm, or curiosity. They are quick to apply and get your response easily.

It’s also limited to just six icons, and in monochrome no less.

With iOS 18, the Messages app adds color (and some cartoony shading) to those icons, but it also adds the ability to reply with any emoji or sticker. Here’s how to do it:

1. Touch and hold the message until the Tapback bubble appears.
2. Tap the emoji button just below the other icons. Or you can swipe left on the bubble to view recent emojis, stickers, and the gray emoji button that leads to the emoji library.
3. In the emoji chooser, choose a sticker (left side) or any of hundreds of emojis.

You can create your own unique emojis with Genmoji

One of the features related to messages Apple intelligence iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, and iPhone 16 Pro models have the ability to summarize text in their notifications. iOS 18.2 introduces another Messages app option: Genmoji, a way to instantly create your own emoji by describing what you want. (Also works on iPads with M series processors and the latest iPad mini.)

Before you get started, you’ll need to Sign up for the waiting list In the Image Playground application. Once you are accepted, you can do the following:

1. In a conversation with someone, tap Emoji button To display emoji options.
2. Click on Genmoji button To the right of the emoji description field.
3. Type (or use dictation to speak) a description of what your Genmoji should look like. You can type something like “blue bird” or “browse crying emoji” and the app will start generating variations of your descriptions. (Learn more about Create better Genmoji.)
4. Scroll through the icons it creates until you find one you like. You can also edit the description to change the parameters of the generated image.
5. When you have the Genmoji you want, tap He adds.

New emoji appear embedded in your text and are added to your recent emoji collection. It also appears as a sticker that you can add.

You can schedule text messages using Send Later

I know friends who would probably wake up in the middle of the night to respond to a text, and who I would probably wake up. Because I want the latter to remain my friends, the ability to schedule text messages in the Messages app is great when I want to share a thought but don’t need an immediate response.

To send a message at a specific time, do the following:

1. Write your message.
2. Click on more (+) button.
3. handle Send later; You may need to scroll up to find it in the Apps & Features list.
4. In the time picker that appears, set a day and time to send the message.
5. Press the Send Message button (up arrow) to schedule the message.

Scheduled messages appear with faint dashed borders.

If you need to change the time later, click Edit Above the message and then choose Edit time From the list. Also, if you find yourself scheduling messages a lot, I recommend doing so Moved the Send Later option to the top in the More menu So it’s easy to access.

For more, see How Apple Redesigned the Photos app in iOS 18 And know everything new A password app that syncs across devices and platforms.