The updated iOS was made available on Sept. 17, and since then many of us have had a chance to play around with it, discovering what it has to offer and for the most part being pleased with what we are finding. That’s not to say every change is being met with applause, however. In fact, one part of the update has left many people confused and even frustrated.
Trying to add a photo to a message? Good luck
For many people, adding photos to text messages is a crucial part of texting. Whether it’s a picture of where you are, a friend, family member or even a meme, the process for doing so has always been pretty straightforward and simple. It used to be you would tap an arrow next to the text box, which would open up the option to add a photo either taken at that moment or from your stored library. But iOS 12 took away that option, and instead replaced it with a couple more steps that, if you are unaware of them, will make you think adding photos from the text window is no longer an option.
That’s not the case, though
In newer iPhones, the box to directly access your library will appear in the upper-left corner after tapping on the camera icon. On older models, tapping on the camera will open up that feature, giving you the ability to take a picture that will be added directly to the text message and nothing more. With older devices you actually still can add photos directly from your library into a message, albeit via a different route than before. So if you have an iPhone 5s and newer, an iPad Air, an iPad Pro, an iPad mini 2 or newer, an iPad from 2017 or sixth generation iPod touch, and you update to iOS 12, you’ll want to keep reading. When you first open up a message that you want to add a photo to, it will look something like this here. Unlike before, when you would want to look to the camera icon, you will instead want to tap on the symbol that looks like the App Store logo. Fun Fact: The first iPhone came out June 29, 2007. It’s crazy how much has changed in just 11 years!
Doing that will open up a tray filled with icons, including those representing apps you have downloaded. It looks something like this, and you will notice a color wheel icon. Tap on that.
That will bring up your most recent photos, which you can scroll through by swiping. Find the one you want, tap on it and watch it enter the text box in a familiar way.
Is that good enough?
The thing about change is many of us don’t particularly care for it. We were used to doing things a certain way and then, all of a sudden, Apple goes and forces us to do things differently. That said, once we get used to the new way of adding photos to text messages it will probably become second nature, and we’ll go on to forget about how things used to be. And besides, we now also have quicker access to apps, which could also come in handy while we are trying to text.
