1) Avoid using Messenger
Facebook has drawn the ire of its users by making it nigh-on
impossible to not move over to the new Messenger app, which replaces the
message functionality on the Facebook app itself. Now, when you click
on messages, you are obliged to install Messenger, unless you’re content
to never send Facebook messages from your phone again.
The only workaround, for the time being, is to use the mobile browser
version of Facebook. There have been suggestions that on iOS if you
pause the installation of Messenger, or delete it after installation,
you can continue to send messages the old way, but we found this didn’t
work. 2). Mute notifications in Facebook messenger2) Silence that awful sound
Facebook Messenger has been controversial, to say the least. Not only
are users irritated by being forced to use the app, the ‘Ping!’
notification can quickly become relentless when you’re in a group
conversation, for example.
This is harder to stop on iOS than on Android.
Head to Settings -> Notifications on iOS to can mute all
conversations for either 1hr or until 8am, however long that may be.
Alternatively head to a specific conversation and click the “i” on the
top-right hand corner to mute for 1 hr, until 8am, or indefinitely. If
you really want to nix any sounds from the Messenger app entirely, head
to your iOS Settings -> Notification Center -> Messenger ->
Sounds.
On Android you can simply head to Settings -> Notifications and
customize notifications however you wish, including disabling that awful
‘Ping!’ To Mute specific conversations, select and hold the
conversation in the ‘Recents’ tab, then click ‘Mute notifications’.
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3) Chat heads
You may want ready and easy access to particularly important Facebook
Messenger conversations. Chat heads are small bubbles that remain on
your phone’s screen even after you leave the Messenger app, allowing you
to click back into a conversation easily. To create a chat head, click
and hold a conversation in the ‘Recents’ tab, then click ‘Open chat
head’. This is only available on Android. 4) See shared photos
Scrolling through reams and reams of messages to find that one photo
someone sent two weeks ago is a pretty inefficient way of doing things.
Facebook Messenger lets you see all the photos sent in a single
conversation in a collated grid view, making the ordeal of finding an
old photo much less painful. To go to the collated grid view on iOS,
click the ‘i’ at the top right of a conversation ->
Photos (or in group chat, ‘i’ -> More -> See Photos). On
Android, you will need to open a chat head, then click the three
vertical dots on the top right -> See Shared Photos.
Viber
5). Don’t download pictures in Viber.5) Don’t auto download my photos please!
Use Viber for a short while and you will quickly find your phone
filled with pictures and videos that you neither took nor saved
yourself. This is because Viber, like WhatsApp, automatically downloads
and saves any images you receive. To end this multimedia tyranny, on
iOS, click ‘More’ on the bottom right of the screen -> Settings ->
Media. On Android, it’s in the same location: Menu -> Settings ->
Media. 6) Be more private
By default, your contacts can see when you were last active on Viber
and if you have read their message. The obvious result being if you’re
actively avoiding someone, they can probably tell. You can easily
disable both of these functions. On iOS, click ‘More’ on the bottom
right of the screen -> Settings -> Privacy. You will also be able
to block contacts from this menu. On Android, it’s in the same location:
Menu -> Settings -> Privacy. 7). Smart Notifications in Viber7) Smarter notifications
If you are receiving a particularly large amount of messages from
someone, but don’t want to be buzzed every time, Viber has the option to
enable ‘Smart Notifications’. When this is on, you will receive
notifications for the first one or two texts, but messages from your
contact immediately after won’t buzz your phone. Sadly this function is
only available on Android. Select a conversation, then swipe left. A
menu will appear with an option for ‘Smart Notifications’
WhatsApp
8) More private messaging
WhatsApp is similar to Viber in many ways, including in the fact that
it lets your contacts see when you were last in the app, hardly ideal
if you’re slow at replying to messages or just plain don’t want to talk
to someone. Disabling this feature is straightforward. On iOS, within
the app, head to Settings -> Account -> Privacy. You can also
block numbers from this menu. On Android the process is the same. Head
to Settings -> Account -> Privacy. In the same menu, on iOS and
Android, you can block contacts who you no longer want to be able to
message you. 9) Don’t autosave media
Again, just like Viber, WhatsApp will save all images and videos you
receive to your phone, clogging up your photos with content you didn’t
explicitly want to be there. To disable this go to Settings -> Chat
Settings -> Save Incoming Media. On Android this option is found in
the same place: Settings -> Chat Settings -> Media Auto Download
-> Data.
10). Snapchat Fun Filters10) Fun Filters
Everyone knows you can doodle on your Snapchats, it’s a core premise
of the messaging app. But you can also add filters to your photos,
giving them the look and feel of Instagram photos. To enable filters,
click the clear square at the bottom left of the screen when you open
the app, then click the cog at the top right hand of the screen to enter
Settings -> Manage -> Filters. You will need to give Snapchat your location data. Then when you take a photo, simply swipe left and right to add filters.
Snapchat also has location-based filters, which are special overlays
that only appear when you’re in certain places. So far it appears they
only work in the US, at famous locations in New York, for example, and
at attractions like Disneyland. 11). Enlarged text in Snapchat11) Embiggen text
In the same menu as ‘Filters’ is ‘Special Text’, which allows you to
enlargen the text you send. While this might seem rather mundane, it
offers new opportunities for creativity when mixed with emojis, which
can also be enlargened. Once this feature is enabled by going to
Settings -> Manage, you will see a large ‘T’ in the top right hand
corner whenever you type text into your Snapchats. 12) Black and white
The ordinary colour palette on Snapchat is rather limited,
conspicuously lacking white or black. But a simple trick will let you
access a whole range of new colours and tones. When you select the pen
tool, tap and hold the colour bar. Instead of swiping up and down,
instead swipe left and upward to the opposite side of the screen. Here
you’ll find white. Swipe down to the bottom of the screen and you’ll
find black. In between, you’ll find varying shades of the default
colours. On Android you can even paint transparently: tap and hold on
the colour bar until the full palette appears, then select the
transparent colour. 13). Front-facing flash in Snapchat13) Front facing flash
Few if any smartphones have a flash for the front-facing camera
(that’s the one you use for selfies, by the way). But Snapchat has a
nifty way of recreating the flash effect even in the absence of a
physical flash. When taking a photo with the front-facing camera,
Snapchat will force the screen to flash all white at the instant the
photo is captured. The blast of light created is basically equivalent to
a flash. To enable this, go to Settings -> Manage -> Front-Facing
Flash. On the same menu you’ll have options to enable replaying
people’s Snapchats and ‘Special’ (read ‘Larger’) text. 14) Stop chat messages from disappearing
Snapchat used to be a simple photosharing app, but in May this year
it introduced a text chat function. Now when you exchange snaps with
someone, you can also swipe right on their name to bring up a chat box
that works in the same way as any other instant messaging app. There’s
one crucial difference, the text disappears as soon as you close the
chat box, which can quickly become frustrating if you’re exchanging
information you need to remember. To stop this from happening, simply
tap on the message you want to save – it will become highlighted in grey
and won’t be deleted until you un-highlight it again by tapping it.
iMessage
15) Switch Off Read Receipts
Let’s start with the simple stuff: read receipts. When you’re a
messaging a friend, these appear underneath their messages on their end
of the conversation, showing them if you have opened the chat and seen
their message, which means they know exactly how long you took to reply.
This can be disabled by heading to iOS Settings -> Messages ->
Send Read Receipts 16) Send texts from your computer
If you are working hard at your laptop, you may not want to break
your flow to check messages on your phone. Download the Messages app for
Mac and you will be able to have iMessage chats from your computer.
Better still, with the new OS X Yosemite, you’re not just restricted to
iMessages, you can also send SMS. 17) GIFs!
Animated GIFs are those short, looping, often hilarious, videos that
dominate much of the web’s less serious communication. Although it may
not the most important feature that the iPhone has to offer, iMessage
supports animated GIFs. Send one to your friend and it will
automatically play in your conversation thread. To send an GIF with
iMessage, save a GIF to your Photos in the same way you would an
ordinary picture, then during an iMessage conversation, click the Camera
icon and ‘Choose Existing’. Alternatively, you can enter the ‘Photos’
app, click the GIF, select the box with the upward arrow at the bottom
left of the screen, then select ‘Message’. 18). Caps lock in iMessage18) Write in capital letters
Sending long messages, emails, Facebook posts or tweets in all-caps
is widely regarded as obnoxious, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have
its place. This is more of a general keyboard trick for iOS, than
specific to iMessage; it will work for all of the apps here. The shift
key on the iOS keyboard switches between upper and lower case, but
annoyingly it only allows you to type one capital letter before you have
to tap it again. Alternatively, you can hold it down, which makes
typing difficult. But if you double tap the key, it will go into all
caps mode, allowing you to type in upper case continually. To go back to
lower case, simply tap the key again. 19) View time stamps
iMessage hides the time stamps for messages by default (the same is
true for iOS texts generally). Instead of showing the time of each text,
it simply shows when a session of texts begun. Swipe left on a
conversation, however, and you will be able to see the time of each and
every text. 20). Emojis in iMessage20) Emojis!
Emojis are a fun way of communicating in shorthand online, replacing
text-based communication with a visual language that is broad enough to
let you say almost anything, but restrictive enough to force you to be
creative about how you construct messages. There are cute little
illustrated icons to represent everything from facial expressions, to
landmarks, to fruit. You could think of them as hieroglyphics. To enable
emojis in iMessage (and for the keyboard generally across all apps on
iOS), go to iOS Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Keyboards
-> ‘Add New Keyboard’ -> Emoji. On Android phones, emojis are
active by default. Simply click the smiley face on the bottom left of
the keyboard. Some of the emojis are slightly different on Android. For
example, the dancing lady emoji on iOS is a dancing man on Android.
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