What do you think are the chances for a QoL upgrade to iMessage, so it looks even more attractive next to RCS (with UP 3.0)?
I‘m thinking stuff like:
- allow us to have different Caller IDs for different contact lists or individual contacts (e.g. more professional one for work contacts), which also ties into phone calls
- better search (WhatsApp and co. are far superior in that department) or at the very least search in individual conversations
- More granular auto-deletion values (e.g. half a year etc)
- integrate Hide my Mail into iMessage, to generate randomized one-off mails that you can use for chats you don‘t want to share your real info with. With potentially auto-expiry dates or easy revoking
- Increased group size limit from 32 to 100+ to match RCS groups
- Allowing us to leave groups with 3 or less participants (RCS allows that, as it stands iOS users are lost when Android folks dump a group)
- Deciding with which number / mail you want to start a conversation with (more granular than the existing default in settings)
- Allowing us to pin a conversation to an iMessage identifier (e.g. when my number deregisters accidentally, it doesn‘t fallback to a mail but instead fails sending the message and informs me about the issue so I can most of the time easily and quickly fix it)
- Displaying the current iMessage identifier for a contact more prominently (e.g. the recent tag in the contact sheet, so it‘s easier to spot whether I‘m using a contacts number or mail) and also allowing us to swap them out inline without going through new conversation panel
- Group typing and read indicators to match RCS on Android
- Group admin permissions to prevent others from adding unauthorized users
- Group invite links like other messengers have, with optional admin approval
- Per conversation auto-save media settings
- Allowing us to nuke SMS like you can nuke MMS (to prevent accidental SMS fallbacks for e.g. bad connection and RCS chats)
- iMessage / Apple Messages on the web (it‘s possible, anyone who claims otherwise doesn‘t live in the current decade where other messengers easily provide E2EE on the web)
- Allowing us to share individual focus mode name, icon and coloring (there is a difference between having fitness or sleep focus on, which should be communicated)
- Revamped inline replies UX, turning it into more of a threads system that‘s easier to navigate/ follow
- Smarter iCloud offloading: free up space more aggressively on device (maybe something similar to calendar sync cutoffs?), or pick to keep all messages
- Fix sync recovery for devices that aren‘t used frequently (every time my wife uses her Mac, it takes a decade to properly sync in messages since she last used her device)
- Integrate contact lists or have their own list / folder system to structure your inbox
- Better notification management for message types (e.g. block tapback notifications to reduce spam in groups)
- The opposite of focus mode deliver immediately: deliver quietly, for when you have a low priority message that shouldn’t ping your contacts device in case you don‘t want to disturb them
I feel like iMessage value proposal degrades year by year with other platforms adding great features and RCS slowly but surely closing in in terms of feature sets on iOS. I‘d love to get more contacts on iMessage, but the value proposal is really hard when iMessage has so many questionable design choices or lacks universally available functionality others have come to love on their messenger platform.
I‘m thinking stuff like:
- allow us to have different Caller IDs for different contact lists or individual contacts (e.g. more professional one for work contacts), which also ties into phone calls
- better search (WhatsApp and co. are far superior in that department) or at the very least search in individual conversations
- More granular auto-deletion values (e.g. half a year etc)
- integrate Hide my Mail into iMessage, to generate randomized one-off mails that you can use for chats you don‘t want to share your real info with. With potentially auto-expiry dates or easy revoking
- Increased group size limit from 32 to 100+ to match RCS groups
- Allowing us to leave groups with 3 or less participants (RCS allows that, as it stands iOS users are lost when Android folks dump a group)
- Deciding with which number / mail you want to start a conversation with (more granular than the existing default in settings)
- Allowing us to pin a conversation to an iMessage identifier (e.g. when my number deregisters accidentally, it doesn‘t fallback to a mail but instead fails sending the message and informs me about the issue so I can most of the time easily and quickly fix it)
- Displaying the current iMessage identifier for a contact more prominently (e.g. the recent tag in the contact sheet, so it‘s easier to spot whether I‘m using a contacts number or mail) and also allowing us to swap them out inline without going through new conversation panel
- Group typing and read indicators to match RCS on Android
- Group admin permissions to prevent others from adding unauthorized users
- Group invite links like other messengers have, with optional admin approval
- Per conversation auto-save media settings
- Allowing us to nuke SMS like you can nuke MMS (to prevent accidental SMS fallbacks for e.g. bad connection and RCS chats)
- iMessage / Apple Messages on the web (it‘s possible, anyone who claims otherwise doesn‘t live in the current decade where other messengers easily provide E2EE on the web)
- Allowing us to share individual focus mode name, icon and coloring (there is a difference between having fitness or sleep focus on, which should be communicated)
- Revamped inline replies UX, turning it into more of a threads system that‘s easier to navigate/ follow
- Smarter iCloud offloading: free up space more aggressively on device (maybe something similar to calendar sync cutoffs?), or pick to keep all messages
- Fix sync recovery for devices that aren‘t used frequently (every time my wife uses her Mac, it takes a decade to properly sync in messages since she last used her device)
- Integrate contact lists or have their own list / folder system to structure your inbox
- Better notification management for message types (e.g. block tapback notifications to reduce spam in groups)
- The opposite of focus mode deliver immediately: deliver quietly, for when you have a low priority message that shouldn’t ping your contacts device in case you don‘t want to disturb them
I feel like iMessage value proposal degrades year by year with other platforms adding great features and RCS slowly but surely closing in in terms of feature sets on iOS. I‘d love to get more contacts on iMessage, but the value proposal is really hard when iMessage has so many questionable design choices or lacks universally available functionality others have come to love on their messenger platform.
