May 30, 2018 • 5 mins
Apple has released iOS 11.4 and it includes a new feature called Messages in iCloud that will finally sync your messages across various Apple devices. It can also free up valuable storage space on your iPhone.How to turn it on:http://richontech.tv/2018/05/quick-tips/messages-in-icloud-could-help-free-up-iphone-storage-space/Follow Rich on Social Media:Facebook: http://facebook.com/RichOnTechTwitter: http://twitter.com/richdemuroInstagram: http://instagram.com/richontechEasy ways to listen on your phone or smart speaker:"Hey Google, Play the Rich on Tech Podcast""Hey Siri, Play the Rich on Tech Podcast""Alexa, Enable the Rich on Tech Flash Briefing"
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
A new Apple feature sinks your text messages across various devices,
and it can free up some precious storage space on
your iPhone. What's going on, I'm Rich Demiro. This is
Rich on Tech Daily. Apple has released iOS eleven point four,
which has several new features, but one in particular could
make managing your text messages easier, especially if you have
(00:26):
multiple Apple devices. As a bonus, it can help you
free up some space consumed by your messages. The new
feature is called Messages in iCloud. And here's the thing.
It was announced last year at WWDC. Now we're coming
up to this year's WWDC and the feature was just launched.
But I guess Apple wanted to get it right. So
(00:47):
you might be thinking, wait a second, didn't iCloud always
store my messages? Well, kind of sort of. Yes, No,
it was really a mixed bag. Historically, when you would
back up messages using iCloud, you were really getting only
half the story. Messages were backed up based on the
device that you were backing up to iCloud. If you
did a restore, you would get your messages back, but
(01:08):
only the messages that were on that device, and they
were never truly synced across devices. This means that if
you deleted a text on one device, it might still
show up on another device. Now, with messages in iCloud,
once you turn on the future, you can manage your
messages kind of like you manage webmail. They'll be on
all your devices. When you delete one place, it'll be
(01:29):
gone from another place. If you send a response from
one device, that response will be reflected on the other device. Now,
before I explain how to turn it on, let me
tell you some of the other benefits. One of the
big ones is that since your messages are now stored
in iCloud, this can save you storage space on your phone.
So before all of your I messages were sort of
in this giant backup, which included the photos and attachments
(01:52):
and older messages that you had. All of that was
in a giant messages backup. Well, now a lot of
that is going to be offloaded to eye. Only a
portion of your messages will actually be stored on your phone.
The rest will all kind of be on demand. When
you need something, you tap it and your iPhone will
pull it off the cloud and deliver it to you instantly.
That means your nightly backups will also be faster since
(02:14):
you're not backing up a giant messages backup. It's just
a backup of the local messages that are on your phone.
I know that's kind of a small delineation, but it
is there and it will impact your nightly backups. And finally,
when you get a new device, it's all going to
be restored with all of your messages, not just whatever
you had lingering on the device that you're restored from.
So basically, in a word, this is going to be
(02:36):
really cool because finally you now keep track of all
your texts, no matter where you send or receive them from,
and they will all be in one nice, nicely organized backup.
So how do you set it up? Well, first off,
you need to have the latest version of iOS installed.
This is iOS eleven point four, so go to your
iPhone settings and download that. Once it's installed, you go
(02:57):
into iCloud and all you have to do is turn
on the toggle for messages and that will basically turn
on messages back up in iCloud. If you don't have
two factor authentication turned on, Apple's gonna ask you to
turn that on before it will allow you to sync
your messages and there's a reason for that. Messages often
contain highly sensitive information. There's a lot of personal stuff
(03:18):
in there. Apple wants to make sure that your account
is as secure as possible before it goes mixing and
sending your messages between all these accounts. But keep in
mind they are encrypted end to end, so they are
pretty secure. So what does it mean when you have
two factor authentication turn on? Basically, every time you sign
in using your Apple ID, whether it's on a new
device or on the web, you're going to get a
(03:39):
notification or a text message with a code. You have
to enter that secondary code after your password in order
for the login to proceed. It's a little bit of
a hassle, but it is well worth the added layer
of security. So I just turned the messages in iCloud
on on my iPhone and I'm gonna turn it on
on my iPad. But on my Mac computer the feature
is not available just yet. You have to have a
(04:01):
software update to ten point thirteen point five for your
mac os. Right now, I'm running ten point thirteen point four,
so I can't say that it works perfectly just yet.
But I am very excited about all this because I
never really understood in the past what was going on
with my messages. Sometimes they'd arrived to my Mac, sometimes
they'd derive to my phone, sometimes they'd be on both.
I never really understood. And now finally everything will be
(04:23):
in sync. Now there is one flip side to all
of this, because you're storing all of your messages in
the cloud, this will take up even more iCloud storage,
So keep that in mind. If you're in that five
gigabyte free tier, it's gonna be pretty tight in there
between your photos and your messages, so you're probably gonna
have to upgrade pay that extra buck a month like
(04:43):
I do for fifty gigs. I think that's quite the deal.
I also think the benefit of having all my messages
SYNCD across all my device is a really awesome feature.
All right, thanks so much for listening. If you like
this podcast, please rate and review it in the Apple
Podcast Step. I really appreciate that because then more people
discover it. And if you want to see my step
by step tutorial for turning on the new messages in
(05:06):
iCloud feature, which by the way, again works with both
your I messages and your text messages, just go to
my website richon tech dot TV. Until next time, I'm
Rich Demiro. I'll talk to you real soon.
A new Apple feature sinks your text messages across various devices,
and it can free up some precious storage space on
your iPhone. What's going on, I'm Rich Demiro. This is
Rich on Tech Daily. Apple has released iOS eleven point four,
which has several new features, but one in particular could
make managing your text messages easier, especially if you have
(00:26):
multiple Apple devices. As a bonus, it can help you
free up some space consumed by your messages. The new
feature is called Messages in iCloud. And here's the thing.
It was announced last year at WWDC. Now we're coming
up to this year's WWDC and the feature was just launched.
But I guess Apple wanted to get it right. So
(00:47):
you might be thinking, wait a second, didn't iCloud always
store my messages? Well, kind of sort of. Yes, No,
it was really a mixed bag. Historically, when you would
back up messages using iCloud, you were really getting only
half the story. Messages were backed up based on the
device that you were backing up to iCloud. If you
did a restore, you would get your messages back, but
(01:08):
only the messages that were on that device, and they
were never truly synced across devices. This means that if
you deleted a text on one device, it might still
show up on another device. Now, with messages in iCloud,
once you turn on the future, you can manage your
messages kind of like you manage webmail. They'll be on
all your devices. When you delete one place, it'll be
(01:29):
gone from another place. If you send a response from
one device, that response will be reflected on the other device. Now,
before I explain how to turn it on, let me
tell you some of the other benefits. One of the
big ones is that since your messages are now stored
in iCloud, this can save you storage space on your phone.
So before all of your I messages were sort of
in this giant backup, which included the photos and attachments
(01:52):
and older messages that you had. All of that was
in a giant messages backup. Well, now a lot of
that is going to be offloaded to eye. Only a
portion of your messages will actually be stored on your phone.
The rest will all kind of be on demand. When
you need something, you tap it and your iPhone will
pull it off the cloud and deliver it to you instantly.
That means your nightly backups will also be faster since
(02:14):
you're not backing up a giant messages backup. It's just
a backup of the local messages that are on your phone.
I know that's kind of a small delineation, but it
is there and it will impact your nightly backups. And finally,
when you get a new device, it's all going to
be restored with all of your messages, not just whatever
you had lingering on the device that you're restored from.
So basically, in a word, this is going to be
(02:36):
really cool because finally you now keep track of all
your texts, no matter where you send or receive them from,
and they will all be in one nice, nicely organized backup.
So how do you set it up? Well, first off,
you need to have the latest version of iOS installed.
This is iOS eleven point four, so go to your
iPhone settings and download that. Once it's installed, you go
(02:57):
into iCloud and all you have to do is turn
on the toggle for messages and that will basically turn
on messages back up in iCloud. If you don't have
two factor authentication turned on, Apple's gonna ask you to
turn that on before it will allow you to sync
your messages and there's a reason for that. Messages often
contain highly sensitive information. There's a lot of personal stuff
(03:18):
in there. Apple wants to make sure that your account
is as secure as possible before it goes mixing and
sending your messages between all these accounts. But keep in
mind they are encrypted end to end, so they are
pretty secure. So what does it mean when you have
two factor authentication turn on? Basically, every time you sign
in using your Apple ID, whether it's on a new
device or on the web, you're going to get a
(03:39):
notification or a text message with a code. You have
to enter that secondary code after your password in order
for the login to proceed. It's a little bit of
a hassle, but it is well worth the added layer
of security. So I just turned the messages in iCloud
on on my iPhone and I'm gonna turn it on
on my iPad. But on my Mac computer the feature
is not available just yet. You have to have a
(04:01):
software update to ten point thirteen point five for your
mac os. Right now, I'm running ten point thirteen point four,
so I can't say that it works perfectly just yet.
But I am very excited about all this because I
never really understood in the past what was going on
with my messages. Sometimes they'd arrived to my Mac, sometimes
they'd derive to my phone, sometimes they'd be on both.
I never really understood. And now finally everything will be
(04:23):
in sync. Now there is one flip side to all
of this, because you're storing all of your messages in
the cloud, this will take up even more iCloud storage,
So keep that in mind. If you're in that five
gigabyte free tier, it's gonna be pretty tight in there
between your photos and your messages, so you're probably gonna
have to upgrade pay that extra buck a month like
(04:43):
I do for fifty gigs. I think that's quite the deal.
I also think the benefit of having all my messages
SYNCD across all my device is a really awesome feature.
All right, thanks so much for listening. If you like
this podcast, please rate and review it in the Apple
Podcast Step. I really appreciate that because then more people
discover it. And if you want to see my step
by step tutorial for turning on the new messages in
(05:06):
iCloud feature, which by the way, again works with both
your I messages and your text messages, just go to
my website richon tech dot TV. Until next time, I'm
Rich Demiro. I'll talk to you real soon.
Host
Rich DeMuro
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