We’ve gone through the changes for Apple Notes and Apple Reminders in iPadOS16. Unlike iOS 16, iPadOS 16 got no Lock Screen updates, which makes the Messages update one of the biggest for the device.
Edit messages
We can now edit messages we have sent. Up to 15 minutes after sending, you can still change the message. That gives you plenty of time to determine whether to change the message or not. The app displays the final edited message. However, by simply tapping Edited, the recipient can see all the edits you made. That defeats the purpose of editing the message in the first place.
We normally advocate for options, but seeing all our edits is not an option we’d like our recipients to have. Let’s hope that in the future, people will only see the final edited version of our messages, like with Telegram.
It’s worse on devices that are not running iPadOS 16, iOS 16, or macOS Ventura. My MacBook Pro is not supported for macOS Ventura, so I can see all the edits as they come in. This is a serious problem because you can’t know if everyone in your Contacts is running the latest OS. That means editing messages is risky.
You’re limited to five edits per message, after which the option to edit simply disappears. How likely is it that you’ll edit a message five time? We like the fact that the app doesn’t let you make a sixth edit only to display a message saying something like “You have reached the maximum number of edits you can make for this message“. It’s better to simply remove the option.
Unsend messages
At this point, it makes more sense to Undo Send, then type a new one. However, you only have three minutes to decide whether or not to cancel a message. After that, you won’t have the option. We love the animation for unsending! I’ll probably be unsend the majority of my messages just for fun. Like with editing messages, this only works with iPadOS 16, iOS 16 and macOS Ventura or later OS.
Mark as unread
We never understood the “Mark as unread” feature with emails, but it must be very popular for Apple to add it to Messages. We tend to read messages when we’re ready to reply to them. If you frequently use this feature, please tell us how you utilise it. We might be overlooking something.
Collaboration
Sending collaboration invitations to everyone in your group chat simplifies life, exactly what a digital workflow should do! It saves a lot of time, especially for large teams. This works with Files, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, Notes, Reminders, and Safari. We can’t wait to have this in our favourite third-party apps because collaboration is a must-have in 2022. Apple has made it easier for developers to add collaboration to their apps in iOS/iPadOS16.
As your team works on the document, you get notifications in Messages each time someone makes changes to it. This setup is not ideal, probably because I dislike notifications in general. Collaboration updates and their notifications should remain in the app and on the document you’re collaborating on. Too much already goes on in a group chat, that has nothing to do with your shared documents. Notifications for every tiny change can become overwhelming.
We can now share synchronised activities with friends in Messages. It’s supposed to work with movies, music, workouts, and even games! SharePlay has only worked once so far when we first tried it. We’ve received a variety of error messages since then:
- Unable to SharePlay: This media is unavailable while using SharePlay in the Music app.
- This content isn’t available to SharePlay.
- Once, we got one saying SharePlay only worked on devices in the same country. So far, SharePlay has been the worst feature we’ve tried in iPadOS 16. We hope you’ve had better luck.
Audio fast-forward
The ability to fast-forward and rewind audio messages is the last improvement to Messages in iPadOS 16. Amazingly, we didn’t have it earlier. Overall, we think Apple put a lot of effort into Messages, in iPadOS 16, and we love it.
