WEBVTT - Texts Finally Sync For Real on Apple Devices

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<v Speaker 1>A new Apple feature sinks your text messages across various devices,

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<v Speaker 1>and it can free up some precious storage space on

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<v Speaker 1>your iPhone. What's going on, I'm Rich Demiro. This is

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<v Speaker 1>Rich on Tech Daily. Apple has released iOS eleven point four,

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<v Speaker 1>which has several new features, but one in particular could

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<v Speaker 1>make managing your text messages easier, especially if you have

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<v Speaker 1>multiple Apple devices. As a bonus, it can help you

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<v Speaker 1>free up some space consumed by your messages. The new

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<v Speaker 1>feature is called Messages in iCloud. And here's the thing.

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<v Speaker 1>It was announced last year at WWDC. Now we're coming

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<v Speaker 1>up to this year's WWDC and the feature was just launched.

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<v Speaker 1>But I guess Apple wanted to get it right. So

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<v Speaker 1>you might be thinking, wait a second, didn't iCloud always

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<v Speaker 1>store my messages? Well, kind of sort of. Yes, No,

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<v Speaker 1>it was really a mixed bag. Historically, when you would

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<v Speaker 1>back up messages using iCloud, you were really getting only

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<v Speaker 1>half the story. Messages were backed up based on the

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<v Speaker 1>device that you were backing up to iCloud. If you

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<v Speaker 1>did a restore, you would get your messages back, but

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<v Speaker 1>only the messages that were on that device, and they

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<v Speaker 1>were never truly synced across devices. This means that if

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<v Speaker 1>you deleted a text on one device, it might still

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<v Speaker 1>show up on another device. Now, with messages in iCloud,

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<v Speaker 1>once you turn on the future, you can manage your

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<v Speaker 1>messages kind of like you manage webmail. They'll be on

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<v Speaker 1>all your devices. When you delete one place, it'll be

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<v Speaker 1>gone from another place. If you send a response from

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<v Speaker 1>one device, that response will be reflected on the other device. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>before I explain how to turn it on, let me

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<v Speaker 1>tell you some of the other benefits. One of the

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<v Speaker 1>big ones is that since your messages are now stored

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<v Speaker 1>in iCloud, this can save you storage space on your phone.

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<v Speaker 1>So before all of your I messages were sort of

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<v Speaker 1>in this giant backup, which included the photos and attachments

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<v Speaker 1>and older messages that you had. All of that was

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<v Speaker 1>in a giant messages backup. Well, now a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>that is going to be offloaded to eye. Only a

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<v Speaker 1>portion of your messages will actually be stored on your phone.

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<v Speaker 1>The rest will all kind of be on demand. When

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<v Speaker 1>you need something, you tap it and your iPhone will

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<v Speaker 1>pull it off the cloud and deliver it to you instantly.

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<v Speaker 1>That means your nightly backups will also be faster since

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<v Speaker 1>you're not backing up a giant messages backup. It's just

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<v Speaker 1>a backup of the local messages that are on your phone.

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<v Speaker 1>I know that's kind of a small delineation, but it

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<v Speaker 1>is there and it will impact your nightly backups. And finally,

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<v Speaker 1>when you get a new device, it's all going to

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<v Speaker 1>be restored with all of your messages, not just whatever

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<v Speaker 1>you had lingering on the device that you're restored from.

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<v Speaker 1>So basically, in a word, this is going to be

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<v Speaker 1>really cool because finally you now keep track of all

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<v Speaker 1>your texts, no matter where you send or receive them from,

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<v Speaker 1>and they will all be in one nice, nicely organized backup.

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<v Speaker 1>So how do you set it up? Well, first off,

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<v Speaker 1>you need to have the latest version of iOS installed.

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<v Speaker 1>This is iOS eleven point four, so go to your

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<v Speaker 1>iPhone settings and download that. Once it's installed, you go

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<v Speaker 1>into iCloud and all you have to do is turn

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<v Speaker 1>on the toggle for messages and that will basically turn

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<v Speaker 1>on messages back up in iCloud. If you don't have

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<v Speaker 1>two factor authentication turned on, Apple's gonna ask you to

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<v Speaker 1>turn that on before it will allow you to sync

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<v Speaker 1>your messages and there's a reason for that. Messages often

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<v Speaker 1>contain highly sensitive information. There's a lot of personal stuff

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<v Speaker 1>in there. Apple wants to make sure that your account

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<v Speaker 1>is as secure as possible before it goes mixing and

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<v Speaker 1>sending your messages between all these accounts. But keep in

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<v Speaker 1>mind they are encrypted end to end, so they are

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<v Speaker 1>pretty secure. So what does it mean when you have

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<v Speaker 1>two factor authentication turn on? Basically, every time you sign

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<v Speaker 1>in using your Apple ID, whether it's on a new

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<v Speaker 1>device or on the web, you're going to get a

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<v Speaker 1>notification or a text message with a code. You have

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<v Speaker 1>to enter that secondary code after your password in order

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<v Speaker 1>for the login to proceed. It's a little bit of

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<v Speaker 1>a hassle, but it is well worth the added layer

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<v Speaker 1>of security. So I just turned the messages in iCloud

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<v Speaker 1>on on my iPhone and I'm gonna turn it on

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<v Speaker 1>on my iPad. But on my Mac computer the feature

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<v Speaker 1>is not available just yet. You have to have a

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<v Speaker 1>software update to ten point thirteen point five for your

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<v Speaker 1>mac os. Right now, I'm running ten point thirteen point four,

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<v Speaker 1>so I can't say that it works perfectly just yet.

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<v Speaker 1>But I am very excited about all this because I

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<v Speaker 1>never really understood in the past what was going on

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<v Speaker 1>with my messages. Sometimes they'd arrived to my Mac, sometimes

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<v Speaker 1>they'd derive to my phone, sometimes they'd be on both.

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<v Speaker 1>I never really understood. And now finally everything will be

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<v Speaker 1>in sync. Now there is one flip side to all

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<v Speaker 1>of this, because you're storing all of your messages in

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<v Speaker 1>the cloud, this will take up even more iCloud storage,

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<v Speaker 1>So keep that in mind. If you're in that five

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<v Speaker 1>gigabyte free tier, it's gonna be pretty tight in there

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<v Speaker 1>between your photos and your messages, so you're probably gonna

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<v Speaker 1>have to upgrade pay that extra buck a month like

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<v Speaker 1>I do for fifty gigs. I think that's quite the deal.

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<v Speaker 1>I also think the benefit of having all my messages

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<v Speaker 1>SYNCD across all my device is a really awesome feature.

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<v Speaker 1>All right, thanks so much for listening. If you like

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<v Speaker 1>this podcast, please rate and review it in the Apple

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<v Speaker 1>Podcast Step. I really appreciate that because then more people

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<v Speaker 1>discover it. And if you want to see my step

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<v Speaker 1>by step tutorial for turning on the new messages in

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<v Speaker 1>iCloud feature, which by the way, again works with both

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<v Speaker 1>your I messages and your text messages, just go to

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<v Speaker 1>my website richon tech dot TV. Until next time, I'm

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<v Speaker 1>Rich Demiro. I'll talk to you real soon.