Every New Feature in the iOS 17 Messages App

iOS 17 includes 14 new features in the Messages app alone. Learn how to use Emoji as Stickers, share your location, create stickers from your photos, swipe to reply to a specific message and much more.


Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you all the new features in the Messages App on your iPhone in the new iOS17.
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Now as soon as you upgrade to iOS17 you'll notice that the Messages App has a bit of an overhaul. There's a whole new way to access special features and things that you can include in your messages. You'll see this right away because instead of a strip of apps appearing above the keyboard you've just got this Plus button here. You've got to make things a lot clearer. If you want to add something to the message that is not what you can do with the keyboard here you tap the Plus button. This brings up all of the apps. The list here is going to be in some sort of default order. It looks like Camera, Photos, and Stickers are at the top and then a few others there. If you scroll up you'll find a gap and then the rest of everything else including 3rd party apps that add something to the Messages app.
Now you can rearrange these pretty easily by tapping and holding and then dragging. You can change the order or bring something that you don't use very often down here to the bottom. Maybe bring something that you are going to use pretty often up to the top here and put it in its place.
Now there are actually some new Search features in the Messages App. So if you go up here to the top level you see Search at the top. If you don't see it just pul down until it appears. Then when you go to search you can start a search and look at some of the suggestions that appear below. For instance I could just tap on a conversation here. But I also have these things below here. If I were to tap on this one, for instance, you could see it puts that person there within a box and I still have the blinking cursor afterwards. At this point I could type some text and I'd actually be searching for a message from that person with that text. I could also tap on one of these below. For instance I could tap here to search for photos that have come from that person.
Now if you ever get two-factor codes sent in Messages you know that it is easy to fill those in. It usually pops up as a little way to fill it in, say, in the web browser or in an app. But then you're left with this conversation that just has this code in it. Well, there's a new feature that will allow you to delete that. To get to it go into Settings. Then in Settings don't go to Messages but go to Passwords. Then go to Password Options. Then from there you can see Verification Code and there's a checkbox for Cleanup Automatically. Now when you get and use one of those codes it will just be removed and it won't create more clutter in Messages.
For a long time we could share our location with somebody in Messages but you have to go to the Context App to do that. Now you can just do it right here. Just tap the Plus button and then tap Location. If you don't see it in the initial set just scroll up. When you tap location it goes to a little map and then you can request the location from somebody else or share your current location.
But there is another feature here as well. It's a big one! This little pin here, if you tap that then you can actually move the map around and set a location. Then Share that one and they'll get a map to that location which is ideal for telling somebody where to meet you in the future.
Now there is another location based feature called Check In. So you use the Plus button there as well. Then look for Check In. Maybe down below. When you use that first you'll get a little walk through of what it does. Basically it allows whoever you're talking to to track your progress as you are following directions in the Maps app. So they can keep up with progress. Maybe choose not to share everything with them or limited. Then you can see when they will be notified. Then you can send that as a Check In link to them. This is great when you're going to meet somebody somewhere. You're going to their location or maybe you're going to pick them up. They can track your progress to see where you are without having to bug you while you are on your way.
Now Stickers are a big feature in Messages. Apple has a bunch of new improvements there. One of the things that you can do is you can actually use emoji characters as stickers. To do that you wouldn't use the Plus button here. Instead you would just switch the keyboard to the Emoji Viewer and then pick an emoji, like this one. Tap and hold it and then you can drag the emoji and drop it on a message to add it as a sticker to that message. So this greatly expands the number of stickers you've got because now you've got your hundreds and hundreds of different emojis that you can use. You can also tap and hold there and then go to Sticker Details and then this is where you could swipe to the right and delete the sticker. Now you can also add that sticker to the message you're typing. So you can tap and drag and put it inside the message. But that is just a different way of using emoji as opposed to simply typing it as a character in the message itself.
Now you can also create stickers from your photos. There are two main ways to do this. One is here in Messages you can tap the Plus button and say you want to add a sticker. Then tap the Plus button next to the sticker to create a new sticker. Then at the top you can see your photos and you can jump to a specific category or you can do a search. You can look in Albums. Then you can tap a photo, like this one here, and you can see how is is going to zero in on the subject. Then you can add a sticker. Now you've got that as a sticker there. You can now tap Add Effect and you can use one of these 4 effects here on the sticker or just use it as is. The sticker will remain there in your collection for you to use later on or you can tap it and hold and then Delete.
You can also do that in the Photos App. So in the Photos App you could go to a specific photo. You can tap and hold to use the Lift Subject feature there. Instead of Copy you can just simply use Add Sticker. That will work in some other apps as well. Anywhere you can do Lift Subject you should be able to also create a sticker from what you have lifted.
Now you can also do this with live photos. So you have to do this in the Messages App. Then here what you would do is go to Albums and then in Albums Look At Live Photos. This is just a quick way to get to all of your live photos. Then select the photo that you want. Then it is going to zero in on the subject and create a sticker from that is animated. So we'll add this sticker here and then we'll see the turtle swimming. Now I have noticed it works for some live photos and not others.
Now stickers can be made from videos too. So you're just using that same Lift Subject ability and iOS 17's ability to use that in videos. Instead of copying the subject you're just creating a sticker from it. So I'm going to go in my Photos App here to Videos just to find one really easily. Let's go in here and I can go to any frame I want and Pause and then tap and hold and release and instead of copying the subject there I'm just going to use Add Sticker.
Now here's an additional note about stickers but it doesn't have to do with the Messages App. You can now use stickers elsewhere. So, for instance, in the Notes App here I'm going to tap on the Emoji & Special Character Viewer there at the bottom left. Notice Stickers are now included as well as Emoji. So I can now use one of these inside of, say, a note or in any other messaging apps as well.
Now if you like using Memoji in addition there is a couple new poses you should know about so I'm going to go here into Stickers and I'm going to switch to the Memoji here and you could see all the different poses that you can take your customized Memoji or Animoji and use. The new ones are actually right here in this row. So a halo, a kind of peeking behind a hand, and a smirk.
So there is also a feature called Catch Up which will just be a button at the top right corner that appears when there are messages that you haven't seen yet that are up above the top of the screen. However I've not yet been able to get this to appear so maybe it needs some other things going on as well.
But there is a new feature that if there are messages up above and you want to reply to a specific message you can swipe over to the right and then you can see how you can reply to this message. The other person will actually see this appear at the bottom of their list in response to this message here. So everything is in context.
Finally, here's an interesting new feature. If somebody leaves you a audio message, you know taps the Audio Button like this one right here to record something and send it to you instead of typing, then you'll get that just as before but notice that it will give you a transcription here at the bottom as well. So you don't have to listen to it. Very useful if you're not in a place where you can easily listen to a message.
That's all the new features in the Messages App in iOS 17. Hope you find these useful. Thanks for watching.
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