With Messages for Mac, you can send unlimited messages to any Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that uses iMessage, Apple's secure-messaging service. iPhone owners can use it for SMS and MMS messages, too.
Set up iMessage
iMessage is the Apple messaging service you get automatically with your Apple ID.If it's not already set up, you're asked to sign in when you first open the Messages app. Sign in with same Apple ID that you use with Messages on your iPhone and other devices. It's usually the same Apple ID that you use for iCloud, the iTunes Store, the App Store, and the account you created when you first set up your Mac.
Oct 18, 2019 If it's not already set up, you're asked to sign in when you first open the Messages app. Sign in with same Apple ID that you use with Messages on your iPhone and other devices. It's usually the same Apple ID that you use for iCloud, the iTunes Store, the App Store, and the account you created when you first set up your Mac. Feb 22, 2018 app clap back Microsoft's Brad Smith calls out Apple's App Store policies Microsoft's chief legal officer, Brad Smith, spoke about app store policies and the 'toll' developers need to pay to be in app stores. Smith was referring to Apple's App Store, which is in the spotlight from both the EU and the House antitrust subcommittee.
Have a conversation
- Click at the top of the Messages window.
- Address your message by typing the recipient's name, email address, or phone number. Or click and choose a recipient. If they're in your Contacts app, Messages finds them as you type. To start a group conversation, just add more recipients.
- Type your message in the field at the bottom of the window, then press Return to send it.
- To include emoji, click.
- To include an image or other file, just drag or paste it into the message field. Or use Continuity Camera to capture a photo or scan directly from your iPhone or iPad camera.
- To include an audio recording, clickand record your message.
- After starting a conversation, click Details in the corner of the window to take other actions, including:
- Choose not to be disturbed by notifications about this conversation.
- Use FaceTime to start an audio call or video call .
- Share a screen .
- See the recipient's location—if they're sharing their location with you.
- Review all of the photos and files that were exchanged in the conversation.
- Add a group name, add members to a group, or leave a group. If the group has four or more members, you can remove members: Control-click the member's name, then choose Remove from Conversation.
With macOS Sierra or later, you can also use Siri to send, read, and reply to Messages:
- ”Send a message to Susan and Johnny saying I'll be late' or ”Tell Johnny Appleseed the show is about to start” or ”Text a message to 408 555 1212.”
- ”Read the last message from Brian Park” or ”Read my new messages.”
- ”Reply that's great news” or ”Tell him I'll be there in 10 minutes.”
Add a Tapback to a message
macOS Sierra introduces Tapback to the Mac. A Tapback is a quick response that expresses what you think about a message, such as that you like it or think it's funny. In the image above, the heart next to ”See you then!' is a Tapback. Here's how to do it:
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- Control-click a message bubble to open a shortcut menu.
- Choose Tapback from the menu.
- Click a Tapback to add it to the message bubble.
Your Tapback is visible to everyone in the conversation who is using iMessage with macOS Sierra or later or iOS 10 or later. Other iMessage users see 'Liked' or 'Laughed at' or 'Emphasized,' for example, followed by the text of that message.
iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch also have Tapback, as well as other message effects available only on those devices. Most such affects look the same on your Mac when you receive them. Others appear as a description of the effect, such as ”(sent with Loud Effect).”
Send text messages to anyone from your Mac
If you have an iPhone with a text messaging plan, learn how to set up text message forwarding so you can send and receive SMS and MMS messages from your Mac.
Delete a message or conversation
When you permanently delete a message or conversation, you can't get it back. So make sure that you save important information from your messages.
To delete a message:
- Open a message conversation.
- Control-click the blank area of a message bubble that you want to delete.
- Choose Delete.
- Click Delete.
To delete a conversation:
- Control-click a conversation.
- Choose Delete Conversation.
- Click Delete.
Learn more
- To learn more about Messages, choose Messages Help from the Help menu in Messages.
- If you get an error when trying to sign in to iMessage, learn what to do.
FaceTime is not available in all countries or regions.
In this world of social media, we've got a lot of chat channels to keep track of. Whether you're checking your Twitter DMs, GChats (Google Talk), Facebook Messenger messages, or iMessages, you can have most of them in one place with a dedicated chat client. These are the best chat apps for Mac.
Messages
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Apple's built-in chat client, Messages, makes it seamless for you to chat with anyone that has an iPhone, iPad, or Mac without any effort. You can add SMS and texts messaging from Android or Windows phones to Messages if you have Text Message Forwarding enabled. It gets better, though. Thanks to a little help from Jabber, you can use Messages for dozens of chat channels that use XMPP instant messaging. It's lost some of its universal appeal over the last few macOS updates, however. Messages no longer works with Facebook, AOL Instant Messenger, or Yahoo. It's also very difficult to get Messages to work with GChat (though not impossible).
- Free - It's already on your Mac!
Adium
Adium is probably the most popular third-party chat client. You can connect it to AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, Twitter, MobileMe, IRC, Bonjour, Jabber, plus a few more. It's a great way to keep most (if not all) of your various chat clients in order. I personally don't like the interface of Adium, but sometimes function is more important than looks. Adium has a lot of little features that are really awesome, like initiating encrypted ORT chats, and file transfers. You can't get it in the Mac App Store, but it's free and open source and it's highly rated among Mac users.
- Free - Download now
Trillian
Trillian is another popular chat client that brings together many of your messaging apps into one place, including AOL Instant Messenger, Facebook, Google Talk, ICQ, Olark, and Twitter. I much prefer Trillian's interface because it reminds me so much of the built-in Messages app. It is, however, slightly less feature-rich unless you go pro. You can get quite a few more business-facing features for about $2 per month. It's a seamless experience for Mac users and my personal favorite third-party client, but I don't use a lot of different chat channels in my daily life. I stick with Google Talk, Facebook, and Twitter. It's perfect for me.
- Free - Download now
YakYak
I haven't personally used YakYak, but it's a big hit with Mac users that only want a Google Talk client. You may have noticed that GTalk compatibility with Messages in macOS High Sierra is difficult, to say the least. If you just want to be able to chat with your Google peeps with a dedicated window on your Mac, YakYak looks like the perfect option. You can upload images, group chat, and more. You have to install it from GitHub, but there are some fairly clear instructions on how to do so if you're saavy with your Mac. It's not a Chrome extension and doesn't rely on Chrome to work. So, if you're anti-Chrome, this apps is for you.
- Free - Download now
How do you chat on Mac?
What is your preferred chat client for bringing together all of your various chat channels? Put your recommendations in the comments and I'll check them out.
macOS Catalina
Main
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