Follow these tips if you can’t change the iMessage background on iPhone in iOS 26 or if one added by a friend doesn’t appear on your device.

Learn how to view all photos and videos sent and received in an iMessage conversation on your iPhone or iPad in iOS 26.

Meta is bringing message translations to WhatsApp with support for 19 languages, borrowing a feature from Apple’s Messages app.

(via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

Learn how to delete old texts from your iCloud account on iPhone, iPad, or Mac to clean up the Messages app and free up online storage space.

Find out what to do if you’re missing incoming SMS text alerts from new or unknown senders on your iPhone running iOS 26.

Learn how to select and copy a specific part of a text message in the Apple Messages app, WhatsApp, and Telegram on your iPhone.

Apple provides new APIs to third-party developers in the European Union that allow for cellular phone calls and SMS/MMS/RCS messaging in apps.

Learn how to use live translation in iOS 26 Messages app to translate messages in a foreign language into English or another language.

iOS 26 will give CarPlay a new look and make it more functional with support for widgets and Live Activities.

(via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

The new TypeMillennium jailbreak tweak provides a system-wide notification to let you know when someone starts typing iMessages to you.

Easily gather feedback and opinions from friends and family using the new polls feature in iMessage, available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Apple is binging Tapbacks to Messages on CarPlay, so now you can react to chats with emoji while driving because what could possibly go wrong?

Learn how to set an image or color-based animation as the chat background in the Apple Messages app on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Watch.

Apple's iOS 26 software could enhance the iPhone's built-in Messages app with new capabilities, including polls and automatic translation.

If you want to share a link with highlighted text in Messages, there’s an easy but hidden way to do it in Safari on your iPhone.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

The ShootingStar jailbreak tweak lets you send any message via iMessage with the same Shooting Star effect you get from sending "Eid Mubarak."

Send an RCS text from your iPhone to an Android phone after ensuring RCS messaging is supported by your carrier and enabled on your iPhone.

Find out what your options are if you’re about to type a message reply but don’t want the other side to see the typing bubble or indicator.

Support for end-to-end encryption for texts between iPhone and Android is coming soon via the Rich Communication Services (RCS) 3.0 protocol.

Apple will add end-to-end encryption (E2EE) support for RCS texting between iPhone and Android later this year.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)