Text Messaging

Sure it may not happen right away, but one developer has already found evidence pointing to a future compatibility between iMessage on iOS devices and iChat on Mac OS X computers. The snippet of code leading to this conclusion revealed two new properties in OS X Lion's version of iChat software.

These properties could be the beginning of Apple adding full support for iMessage to iChat instant messaging. The "time delivered" and "time read" fields are not used or needed in iChat, however they are already used by iMessage to track instant messaging. According to MacRumors Apple would have no other reason to add these lines of code.

Facebook rolled out a new messaging system for iPhones and Android devices on Tuesday. The new Facebook messaging app simplifies the way you stay in contact with your friends and family by offering an extension of the Facebook messaging feature.

Facebook Messaging is a separate app that allows you to use one click to receive or send messages that are sent through notifications or texts, making it easier for you to connect with your friends on facbook or in your phone's contact list. The app saves all e-mails, texts, and messages so you can keep track of conversations on your mobile device or computer.

There are several things included in the iPhone 3.0 MMS release that users may not be aware of until they start flexing the application. The key here is that you can send much more than photos. Information from your Contacts can be sent via MMS by touching the Share Contact button when viewing entry details.

Similarly, touching the share button in Voice Memos will give the option to send via MMS or email. The iPhone 3GS will send video using MMS, although it will severely degrade the size and quality. This helps to insure the video will play on smaller and older phones.

Newly available via Installer/AppTapp is iSMS, a native text messaging client replacement for the iPhone. iSMS - also called weiSMS, is partially based on WeSMS, a Chinese SMS application, and provides a list of features/enhancemens not found in the standard iPhone SMS application. These lacking features have been high on iPhone owners' lists of gripes with the iPhone.

Though very much a beta, officially only a "preview release", iSMS provides many functions not available when sending text messages on the iPhone through the included interface. The two most prominent of these added features are the ability to send a text message to multiple recipients (or bulk SMS) and the ability to forward received text messages.

The list of major SMS features not normally available on the iPhone which iSMS adds includes the following: