These 8 new messaging features in iOS 18.2 will make your iPhone texting

When you want to get a point across, simple text isn't always enough. In person, you wave your hands or point, but until recently texting someone would be like standing still – just plain words without any emphasis. The Messages app in the iOS 18.2 now he gives you all kinds of decorations, from bold and italic to let the words come out.

And that's just the beginning of what's new.

Animated effects and text formatting make chatting more fun, and RCS support means your friends with Android phones can finally send high-resolution images. If your brain is active late at night, you can schedule messages to be sent at a more reasonable hour without waking anyone up.

And don't forget the abilities to bounce texts off a satellite and create your own emojis with them Genmoji — an Apple Intelligence feature on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16 and select iPad models.

Here are eight new features in the Messages app that you should know about.

Read more: iOS 18 preview: Get ready to customize your iPhone

Also, if you're just getting started with the new system, be sure to check it out settings you need to change immediately. And don't miss these 10 hidden features of iOS 18.

Thanks to RCS messages, you can communicate better with Android users

Adding the Rich Communication Services protocol to Messages should reducing friction when texting with friends who own Android phones. It enables read receipts and gives you higher quality image transfer and end-to-end encryption (but keeps Android's green message bubbles).

If your carrier supports RCS, you probably won't need to do anything to use it. Go to Settings > Apps > Messaging > RCS Messaging and make sure that RCS messages is included.

You can also send text messages via satellite

On Emergency SOS via satellite The feature that was introduced with the iPhone 14 was a literally a savior. When you don't have a mobile signal, you can connect to a satellite and exchange short text messages with emergency services.

With the infrastructure in place, Apple is opening up Messages to non-emergency texts as well. If you're out of cellular or Wi-Fi range and have an iPhone 14 or later, Messages will prompt you to connect to a satellite. While connected, Dynamic Island expands to help you stay focused on satellites overhead.

You can then message people as you normally would, and features like emoticons and Tapback should still work. If you want to check out a demo of the feature, go to Settings > Apps > Messaging > Satellite Messaging > Satellite Demo. Or just go out in the middle of nowhere and try it yourself.

You can now format text in Messages

I don't want to come across as “that typographer,” but it's bothered me for a long time that one of the only ways to emphasize text in Messages is to put it in all caps. We as a society did not develop typography over hundreds of years and invent the most sophisticated computing devices just to yell at each other through text.

So yeah, I guess I'm that guy. I feel better now that I can express myself using bold, italicunderlined and typed text in conversations with my friends who are also using iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and MacOS Sequoia.

You can apply formatting to an entire phrase, individual words and letters, or combinations thereof, such as:

1. Write your message.
2. To apply formatting to the entire message, tap it Format button in the suggestion bar; all your text is highlighted. Or, to add emphasis to just a word, double-tap to select the text and then press it Formatting button. You can also choose Text effects from the options that appear above the selection.
3. Tap one of the options at the top of the formatting panel that replaces the keyboard: bold, italic, underline, or strikethrough.

If you're formatting a message that's sent to someone running an older system, they'll see only plain text, which can be confusing if you've used strikethrough to indicate removed words.

You can animate your text messages

Here is where I drop all pretense of being a typographic purist. The message or selected words or letters can be animated in one of eight styles. Need to deliver some big news with more emphasis than bold text? With iOS 18, there are several new animation options you can add to your text. Large animation expands the size of your letters. Or maybe just mentioning that it's freezing outside doesn't convey the teeth-rattling chill – apply the Jitter animation to make the letters jiggle.

Adding animation is as easy as formatting text:

1. Write your message.
2. Tap it Formatting button in the suggestion bar to select all the text. Or, select individual words or letters and then press that key.
3. Tap one of the animation styles to apply it: big, small, shake, nod, explode, ripple, bloom, or jitter.

You can mix animations in a single message by making selections and applying different styles to them. However, you cannot apply more than one animation to a selection; a word cannot shake and then explode, for example. As with text formatting, the message appears as plain text to anyone not using iOS 18, iPadOS 18, or MacOS Sequoia.

Even with these new features, I want more: text formatting and text animation. Right now you can use one or the other. But if Apple engineers can do something as complex as eye tracking for Vision Pro, they can make this happen in the next update.

You can turn off autoplay animations if that's not your thing

Let's say your friend just installed iOS 18 and wants to try out all the animation effects in a series of messages, creating a screen full of pulsing, resizing, flickering, and exploding text. With all that migraine-inducing animation, what do you think Apple announced?

Don't stress, because you can set the animations not to repeat automatically. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Motion and turn off Effects for autoplay messages. Your friend can still send an animated text that will play once when you receive it, but you won't be subject to the animation repeating.

You can add any emoticons or stickers as typing in Messages

Sometimes words are unnecessary. You can reply to someone's message using a Tapback icon to express love, agreement, disagreement, laughter, alarm, or curiosity. They apply quickly and get your response easily.

They are also limited to just six icons, and in monochrome no less.

With iOS 18, Messages adds color (and some cartoon shading) to those icons, as well as the ability to reply with any emoticons or stickers. Here's how to do it:

1. Tap and hold a message until you see the Tapback bubble appear.
2. Tap the emoticon button just below the other icons. Or, you can swipe left on the bubble to see recent emoticons, stickers, and the gray emoticon button that leads to the emoticon library.
3. In the emoticon picker, choose a sticker (left side) or any of the hundreds of emoticons.

You can create your own unique emojis using Genmoji

One feature related to messaging on Apple Intelligence on the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro models is the ability to summarize incoming texts in their notifications. iOS 18.2 brings another option to the Messages app: Genmoji, a way to create your own emoji on the spot by describing what you want. (It also works on iPads with M-series processors and the latest iPad mini.)

Before you get started, though, you'll need to sign up for the waiting list in the Image Playground application. Once you're accepted, you can do the following:

1. In a conversation with someone, tap them emoticon button to see the emoticon options.
2. Tap it Genmoji button to the right of the Describe Emoji box.
3. Type (or use dictation to speak) a description of what the Genmoji should look like. You can type in something like “blue bird” or “crying emoticon surfing” and the app will start creating variations of your descriptions. (Learn more about creating better Genmoji.)
4. Browse through the icons it creates until you find one you like. You can also edit the description to change the parameters of the generated image.
5. When you have a Genmoji you like, tap Add.

New emoticons appear inside your text and are added to your collection of “Recent” emoticons. It also appears as a sticker that you can add.

You can schedule text messages using Send Later

I know which friends are likely to get up at midnight to answer a text, and which ones I'd probably wake up. Since I want the latter category to continue to be my friends, the ability to schedule texts in the Messages app is great for when I want to share a thought but don't need an immediate response.

To send a message at a specific time, do this:

1. Write your message.
2. Tap it More (+) button.
3. Tap Send later; you may need to swipe up to find it in the list of apps and features.
4. In the time picker that appears, set the day and time to send the message.
5. Tap the Send Message button (up arrow) to schedule it.

Scheduled messages appear with a faintly dashed border.

If you need to change the time later, tap Devices above the message and then select Editing time from the menu. Also, if you find yourself scheduling messages often, I recommend moving the Send later option higher in the More list so it's easier to access.

For more, see how Apple redesigned the Photos app in iOS 18 and learn about the new A password app that syncs across devices and platforms.