If iMessage is so great, why is the Messages experience so terrible?

Apple's main texting app has some great features, but the main messaging experience stiil falls short.

- JASON SNELL

Apple's Messages app may have lost (fave.co/410Unrt) the global messaging wars, but in many A countries-including the U.S. it's still an incredibly popular way of communicating. That's why Apple keeps upgrading it (fave.co/3UXUL6s). This fall's Messages updates are some of the biggest ever, with the addition of RCS messaging, true emoji and sticker tapbacks, styled and animated text, Send Later, and support for texts via satellite.

But as the people in my Messages group chats all upgraded to iOS 18 and started taking advantage of some of these new features, it all became too much for me. All these new features are good, yes, but they can also be spectacularly distracting. This is why Apple's next big step in Messages needs to be to give users the power to control when and how we're interrupted in ways far beyond what's available today.

DEATH BY TAPBACK

Tapbacks are great. I use them all the time, and so do most of my friends. Now that I can tap back with any emoji, or even stickers that I've added-not to mention the forthcoming rain of Al-synthesized GenMoji that will be possible with Apple Intelligence-the use of Tapbacks will just keep increasing in so many of my group messages.