Using Messages on the Mac or in iOS is simple. Start a new conversation, enter someone’s phone number or email address, and start chatting. And if you want to talk with several people at once, type a couple of phone numbers or email addresses when you begin.What you may not realize is that if everyone in your group is using an Apple device and iMessage—this is the case if your messages to them appear in blue bubbles—extra features become available when you click or tap the “Details” button in the upper-right corner of Messages. You can:
- Name the conversation. You can give the conversation a name that’s more descriptive than the truncated names of the people in the conversation. On the Mac, type in the Name field at the top; in iOS, tap in Enter a Group Name and then type.
- Add people. You can add someone when the existing iMessage group has at least three people, including you, and everyone, including the new person, uses an Apple device with iMessage. Open the group icons at the top of the conversation, then click Add Member on Mac or tap Add on iPhone or iPad and enter the person's contact information.
- Remove people. You can remove someone from an iMessage group with at least four people, including you, when everyone uses an Apple device. Open the group icons at the top. On Mac, Control-click the person's name and choose Remove From Conversation. On iPhone or iPad, touch and hold the person's name, tap Remove from Group, then tap Remove to confirm.
- Remove yourself. You can leave an iMessage group when it has at least four people, including you, and everyone uses an Apple device with iMessage. Open the group icons at the top, scroll down, and choose Leave this Conversation; on iPhone or iPad, confirm by tapping Leave Conversation. Once you’ve left, you can’t get back in without someone else adding you. If leaving is unavailable, you can mute notifications with Hide Alerts.
- Mute the conversation. Is leaving a little drastic? Perhaps the conversation is being too chatty while you need to get work done. To mute notifications from the conversation, enable the Do Not Disturb option; disable it when you’re ready to be alerted to new messages again.
- Share your location. Everyone in the conversation can send or share their location from an iPhone or iPad. Sending a location is like posting a message saying “I’m at the library now” along with a map to where you are. Sharing your location allows the others to see where you are at all times, for one hour, until the end of the day, or indefinitely. Of course, if you opt to share indefinitely, you can revoke that sharing later.
- See everyone’s shared locations. When anyone in the conversation is sharing their location, a map appears at the top, showing the locations of those who have shared. This is fabulous for keeping track of relatives during family reunions where different groups head out on separate outings.
- See and manage pictures. Finally, the bottom of the Details screen displays all the pictures that people have shared within the conversation. Messages gives you control over these images, letting you copy, save, open, and delete them. It’s all easy; on the Mac, select photos and Control/right-click to see a contextual menu that includes an Add to Photos Library command or press the Space bar to invoke Quick Look for a bigger view and a Share option. In iOS, touch and hold on a photo to see additional options—tap “Save” to copy the image to the Photos app.
These add, remove, and leave controls apply to iMessage groups. Green bubbles can indicate RCS or SMS/MMS, whose features differ. To include someone using a non-Apple device, start a new group message.