Meta (aka Facebook) today announced the introduction of Messenger "shortcuts," a new Slack-style command system that allows users to speed up communication and get messages to their intended recipients.
Building on the @username tagging method to direct a message to a specific person in a chat, the new system introduces @everyone for grabbing everyone's attention in a group chat, and /silent to send a message to members of a chat without them being immediately notified about it during their off hours.
Messenger is also gaining additional shortcuts over the next few weeks that aim to be both practical and fun, such as /Pay to send and receive money within one-on-one Messenger chats (U.S only) and /gif to easily find and send GIFs. Users need only type /gif and then their chosen topic to see GIF options appear.
Lastly, Messenger on iOS is soon to support /shrug and /tableflip to more easily convey the old-school text-based emoticons ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻. Meta says these are just the first of many more shortcuts coming to Messenger later this year.
Some Apple retail employees have been told to warn customers against visiting to purchase an iPhone Duo without a pre-order on Friday, October 23.
Apple Store employees told MacRumors that they have been advised that there will likely be no iPhone Duo stock available for walk-in purchases on launch day. Staff have been instructed to discourage customers without pre-orders from coming in...
Friday October 16, 2026 4:37 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Verizon plans to charge customers $10 per month for the iPhone Handoff feature that Apple added in iOS 27. iPhone Handoff allows one phone number to be shared across two separate iPhones.
Pricing was included in Verizon's iPhone Duo announcement today, with the carrier confirming iPhone Handoff will work with the iPhone Duo and the iPhone 18 Pro models.
Verizon will support iPhone Handoff,...
Sunday October 18, 2026 7:33 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Despite knowing that the iPhone Duo would face "severe supply constraints" due to manufacturing challenges, Apple chose to begin iPhone Duo pre-orders on Friday instead of waiting until it had more inventory ready, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In his Power On newsletter today, he called this decision a "major mistake."
"Let me cut to the chase: Apple made a major mistake here," he...
Apple's first foldable iPhone, with a book-style design featuring a 5.4-inch outer display and a 7.6-inch inner display with a minimal crease down the middle.
