Text messages

Four 'Text messages' stories May 2014 - April 2016

How-To: Backup and restore SMS and iMessages on a clean iOS install

Jeff Benjamin Apr 9 2016 - 7:49 am PT

Backup SMS Messages

Have you noticed that virtually every aspect of the personal information on our iPhones can be restored individually via iCloud? Things like photos, mail, contacts, calendars, Safari bookmarks, and notes can all be individually recovered on a fresh install of iOS.

The one thing that sticks out like a sore thumb is text messages and iMessages. Sure, it’s possible to restore text messages if you’re willing to backup and restore the entire contents of your iPhone, but what if you wish to perform a fresh install of iOS and then restore messages?

Fortunately, backing up and restoring SMS texts and iMessages on an individual basis is possible, as long as you’re willing to take some time to follow our step-by-step guide.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Square Cash now lets you send money over text messages, add notes to payments, more

Zac Hall Aug 26 2014 - 10:38 am PT

0 Comments

Square launched its app Cash last fall making the process of sending money from your bank to other people over email, and today the company is introducing the next major version of its app. Square Cash 2.0 introduces a list of new features including the ability to now send a transaction over text messaging in addition to email and attach notes to payments for adding context to a transaction. Below you can see the full list of changes in the new version.

What’s New in Version 2.0

Everything is better in Cash 2.0!

• Send cash to any mobile phone number via text message.
• Faster, optimized sending interface.
• Import your address book for quick contact selection.
• Add a note to your payments.
• Pick a profile picture.
• Choose push notifications, text messages, or email notifications.
• Manage all of your email addresses and phone numbers in one place.
• Quickly approve incoming requests from a push notification or text message.
• Invite friends via text message and get $1 when they join.

Square Cash 2.0 is available for free on the App Store.

Apple brings iOS SMS and phone calling to the Mac

Jordan Kahn Jun 2 2014 - 10:45 am PT

4 Comments

In addition to announcing new integration between iOS and Mac OS X with AirDrop support and its new Handoff feature, Apple announced today that it’s bringing SMS and phone calls to the Mac. That means that you can now have your SMS text messages and phone calls from your iPhone arrive as notifications on your Mac. Users will be able to respond to messages and even use the Mac as a speaker phone in order to complete a phone call. Previously iOS users only had access to iMessage messages and FaceTime on the Mac.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple reportedly acknowledges hijacked text message problem

Ben Lovejoy May 14 2014 - 5:33 am PT

74 Comments

messages

Adam Pash, former lead editor of Lifehacker, reports that Apple has acknowledged a problem we’ve heard reported before: text messages continue to be converted to iMessages and forwarded to an Apple ID even when that ID is no longer in use. This means that any text messages sent from an iPhone are reported as delivered while actually disappearing into the ether.

[The AppleCare rep] explained:

This is a problem a lot of people are facing.

The engineering team is working on it but is apparently clueless as to how to fix it.

There are no reliable solutions right now — for some people the standard fixes work immediately; many others are in my boat …

Expand
Expanding
Close