Apple Releases Public Beta of New Messages App for OS X
Alongside today's OS X Mountain Lion news, Apple released a public beta version of its new Messages app for OS X for existing users. Set to replace iChat in OS X Mountain Lion, the new Messages app integrates features of iChat and FaceTime and adds compatibility with the iMessages service introduced for iOS last year.
Download Messages Beta and get a taste of what’s coming in OS X Mountain Lion. When you install Messages, it replaces iChat. But iChat services will continue to work. And Messages brings iMessage to the Mac — just like on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch running iOS 5. Here are the features you can expect with Messages:
- Send unlimited iMessages to any Mac, iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.
- Start an iMessage conversation on your Mac and continue it on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.
- Send photos, videos, attachments, contacts, locations, and more.
- Launch a FaceTime video call and bring the conversation face-to-face.
- Messages supports iMessage, AIM, Yahoo!, Google Talk, and Jabber accounts.
Update: Apple's servers appear to be overwhelmed at the moment, with the download button for the Messages beta showing an error message. The app is, however, still available via direct download (63.8 MB).
Update 2: The Messages download button is now operating properly.
Popular Stories
Significant changes are expected to arrive with Apple's fourth-generation iPhone SE, in terms of both design and hardware, MacRumors has learned. The iPhone SE 4, known internally under the codename Ghost, is expected to receive a new design derived almost entirely from the base model iPhone 14. According to our sources, the iPhone SE 4 will use a modified version of the iPhone 14 chassis...
Apple today released iOS 17.0.2 and iPadOS 17.0.2 updates, with the software coming five days after the releases of iOS 17.0.1 and iPadOS 17.0.1. Today's iOS 17.0.2 and iPadOS 17.0.2 updates arrive as build 21A351 and can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Note that iOS 17.0.2 was previously made available for iPhone...
Complaints about heat issues with the iPhone 15 Pro models are not related to TSMC's 3-nanometer node that was used for the A17 Pro chip, according to well-respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Kuo says that overheating could be caused by "compromises made in the thermal system design" that allowed Apple to cut down on the weight of the iPhone 15 Pro models. Kuo says that the reduced heat...
Wednesday September 27, 2023 1:57 pm PDT by
Juli CloverJust a week after releasing iOS 17, Apple has seeded the first beta of iOS 17.1 to developers. iOS 17.1 adds some features that Apple promised were coming to iOS 17 in the future, plus it refines and improves some existing features. This guide covers everything new in the first iOS 17.1 beta. Apple Music Favorites You can favorite songs, albums, playlists, and artists in the iOS 17.1...
Apple today released macOS 14 Sonoma, the newest version of the operating system that runs on the Mac. macOS Sonoma has been in beta testing for several months, and it is compatible with the 2019 and later iMac, the iMac Pro, the 2018 and later Mac mini, the 2018 and later MacBook Pro, the 2019 and later Mac Pro, and the Mac Studio. The macOS Sonoma update can be downloaded for free on...
Top Rated Comments
When a friend iMessages me, the iMessage my phone number, NOT my Apple ID.
With Messages for Mac, you don't have a choice but to send from your Apple ID, creating two separate conversations or threads in Messages on iOS.
If you're iMessaging somebody on a Mac from your iPhone, and you lose your 3G or WiFi data connection (every so often you'll see that message that says "Sent as text message") you're screwed. Without a data connection, you can't reply to somebody using Messages for Mac, because it goes through the iMessage protocol.
Apple should find a way to integrate your phone number in iMessage for Mac (and iPad and iPod touch provided the user has an iPhone) so there are no double-conversations in the iOS version of Messages.
Direct link:
http://appldnld.apple.com/MessagesBeta/041-4274.20120216.z5km/MessagesBeta.dmg
What did you expect?
The Mac version needs to have a status you can select that enabled only the Computer to bleep and notify, while the others receive in the background.
Would be great to save lots of battery life on my iPhone through the day while I'm at home, but that won't happen if it's lighting up and bleeping every time.