With iMessages, iOS users can be able to send/receive text messages same like SMS, and multimedia messages that look like MMS as they normally do on their phone. However, iMessages doesn’t use your phone number for sending/receiving messages on your iOS device. Rather, you have to enter your email in the address field for it to work. Besides, iMessage can only be used on Apple devices such as iPhones, iPads, Macs and iPods. And, before you allow yourself to start sending texts, videos, photos, locations, contact cards and voice memos with it, you have to setup iMessage on your iPhone/iPad.
And, if your device was setup with iCloud then it is possible that iMessage may not have to be set up separately and you can start using it right away. But if that’s not the case then read on to find out how to setup iMessage on your iPhone or iPad and quickly start using it.
Jump To Section:
- Activating iMessage On Your iPhone/iPad
- Adding Several Email Addresses In iMessage App On Your iPhone/iPad
- Turning Read Receipts On/Off In iMessage On Your iPhone/iPad
- Turning Message Previews On/Off In iMessage On Your iPhone/iPad
Activating iMessage On Your iPhone/iPad
If the above mentioned iCloud activation situation doesn’t applies to your device, here is how you can be able to activate iMessage on your iPhone/iPad.
- Go to Settings On Your iPhone/iPad
- Tap Messages
- Turn On iMessage and wait until it activates
After activation of iMessage, you’ll be able to send/receive texts as well as MMS messages on your device with anyone else who is also using some Apple device. You can also follow these same steps when you have to re-activate the iMessage app on your device due to some network error. All it takes is toggling the switch On or Off and that’s all.
Adding Several Email Addresses In iMessage App On Your iPhone/iPad
If there are several email addresses that you’d like to link with your iMessage app, you can easily do that by following the steps given below. There is no restriction on what platform does the account belong to. Let’s go through the steps for setting up several email addresses.
- Go to Settings on your iPhone/iPad
- Scroll down by swiping up
- Tap on Messages
- Tap on ‘Send And Receive’
- Now tap on ‘Add Another Email’. You can find this option in the section labeled ‘You can be reached by iMessage at:’
- Enter your desired email address that you want to add to iMessage and hit the ‘Enter’ button on keyboard.
Now, you will get an email that will confirm your choice and that if you are actually able to access the email account that you have provided. As soon as the confirmation is done, you can now be able to send iMessages using the new address that you have added.
Turning Read Receipts On/Off In iMessage On Your iPhone/iPad
With the help of read receiptsyour contacts will be able to find out whether you have viewed the iMessages sent to you or not. Though some might think of them as something creepy, others find these receipts useful for their business and work situations. Here is what you need to do for turning read receipts on/off.
- Go to Settings on your iPhone/iPad
- Tap on Messages
- Toggle the switch against Read Receipts On/Off as you like
Turning Message Previews On/Off In iMessage On Your iPhone/iPad
The default settings in iOS show you a small preview of the iMessage on lock screen as well as on Home Screen. But if you want to change that and just want to see the name of the senders in the notification, the settings can be adjusted easily in Messages app. Here is how.
- Go to Settings on your iPhone/iPad
- Tap on Notifications
- Tap on Messages
- Toggle the switch against Show Previews On/Off as you like.
So, that’s how to setup iMessage on your iPhone or iPad and play around with different Settings. If something is still unclear, you can write in comments to find out more about it.