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Every once in a while, a new report will come out saying that iPhone users are biased against Android users, all because of iMessage
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And you know what? They're right. iMessage is the best. There, I said it
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So today I have five pro tips all about iMessage. Number one is that you can actually use bold text at the top of a message
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You go to Settings, iMessage, and you check this box that says Show Subject Field
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Anything you put in the Subject Field will appear in bold at the top of the message
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Now, it does mean that you can only add bold text at the top of a message, not anywhere in the middle
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but it is a good way to get a sense of urgency or importance
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Number two, you can create a custom vibration pattern for different contacts in your phone
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So when your phone's in your pocket, you can tell who's texting you just by the pattern. From any contact page, tap Edit, Text Tone, Vibration, Create New Vibration
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You just tap on the screen with whatever pattern you want, and then you hit Stop
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If you want to do over again, you just hit Record. Whenever you're done, you hit Save, and you give it a name
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I encourage you to keep it short and sweet. If it's too complicated, it'll be hard to recognize, and it'll get annoying in your pocket
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Number three, you can eliminate all the junk from your messages list, from robotexts, verification codes, anybody not in your contacts
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You just go to Settings, Messages, and check Filter Unknown Senders. Now, when you swipe back on your messages list, you can swipe back again
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and you can pick by different categories. You can see everything at once, just like it used to be
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You can just see people in your contacts, just see the unknown senders, and even filter out by spam
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It'll automatically clean up your messages list for you. Number four, you can clean up the iMessage app list
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Now, the iMessage app store is, of course, famous for being the place where you go to download Game Pigeon
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so that you can play pool with your 12-year-old nephew instead of talking to people at the family reunion
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But there's a bunch of other apps and stickers and crap that nobody else ever uses in there
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So you're going to want to scroll all the way to the end and tap More, and then you tap Edit on the top of the screen
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You hit the minus sign and hit Remove from Favorites from all those other apps that you never use
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and you can just untoggle the rest. That way, you just have the button for your photo library and the two or three things you might actually want to use
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Number five, you can draw on a video as you're recording it
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This is an evolution of a feature called Digital Touch for the Apple Watch that nobody ever used
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but you tap on this icon right here, and then you can start recording a video
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and as it's going, you can doodle on it with your finger. It's actually a lot of fun, and it can be kind of practical, too
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If you're sent to the store to pick something up, you can just draw a question mark or do little circles or arrows or annotate it however you want
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Those are all five of my tips, but there's one more thing. You can iMessage from a Windows computer
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Kind of. If you're running Windows 11, open the Phone Link app, and you can pair your phone to your computer over Bluetooth
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It'll receive all of your incoming notifications, and you can respond to some text messages
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It has some downsides, though. It'll only show the messages that come in while your phone is connected, not the whole history
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You don't do group chats, and you can't send pictures or videos, but if you're at work, it's a good way to quickly respond to texts from your phone
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So those are all of my tips. I'm Dee Griffin-Jones with Calls of Mac
