It appears some major iOS leaks have happened lately and now they’re slowly spilling out to the web. Earlier today 9to5Mac shared various tidbits, such as system-wide mouse support for mouse cursors in iOS 14 and also new features coming in Series 6 and Series 7 Apple Watches, plus a leak of Powerbeats 4.
Now, MacRumors is sharing some leaks they’re hearing about, which may be related to iOS 14 or possibly later, when it comes to new iMessage features, specifically the ability to mention contact names like in Slack:
For starters, there is a new Slack-like mention system that would allow users to tag other contacts with their name like @Joe or @Jane. When you type the @ sign, a list of suggested contacts would appear. This would be particularly useful in busy group chat conversations, as it would be possible to enable the “Hide Alerts” setting and only receive push notifications when you are mentioned directly.
This feature is widely available in other apps, such as Facebook’s WhatsApp, which has become one of the most popular cross-platform messaging apps.
As for other iMessage features being tested? Typing indicators look to be finally coming to group chats, plus the ability to mark the last message in a conversation unread. Another feature is being able to share status updates using the “/me” command, which was previously available in iChat on Mac. Numerous other messaging apps let you share your status updates.
MacRumors reports Apple is also “testing the ability to retract iMessages after sending them,” which sounds like an undo send feature, or delete. “Fine print visible to both the sender and recipients would indicate that a message has been retracted,” reports Joe Rossignol.
Apple’s iMessage is due for a major feature shakeup, as it is terrible for large group chats. There needs to be a quoted reply feature similar to WhatsApp, because it’s a pain to reply to specific messages when you’ve been absent from a chat, and flooded with messages.
