Another reason I love iMessage is because it supports AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk and Jabber, letting you merge Messages with systems you're already using. You can also see new messages come in on your computer, which is better for productivity than moving away from the keyboard and screen to view incoming messages on a phone or tablet. When you're on your laptop or Mac computer running Mountain Lion, you can pick up your text conversations right where you left them – except for messages from non-Apple users that came in as SMS texts on your phone, unfortunately. When you send messages between iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads running iOS 5 or later, iMessage prioritises sending and receiving the messages via Wi-Fi when it's available, and through 3G when it's not. Essentially, iMessage improves messaging between Apple devices. On an iPhone or an iPad, it's part of the Messages app. iMessage is Apple's messaging service that optimises texting by bypassing SMS when it can. IMessage is by far one of my favourite features in Mountain Lion, and it replaces the old iChat.
How to use imessage on mac os x lion windows#
For some features, Apple gives you a Windows alternative for example, you can sync bookmarks between Internet Explorer and iOS devices.) Set up iMessage (Note: If you have Apple mobile devices but use a Windows computer, you can still use a lot of iCloud's services and features, but not all of them. And with the freshly released iOS 6, photos can be shared with your contacts automatically, if you've set up iCloud's Photo Stream. Plenty more apps and services sync, of course, so turn on the ones you prefer. I also recommend most users sync Safari bookmarks, Calendar, Reminders, and Notes, too. If you use the Contacts apps on your iPhone or iPad, I definitely recommend turning it on in Mountain Lion, as some of the other apps and services will leverage your Contacts list. Turn on the various apps that you want to sync.
Make sure you turn on iCloud across all the devices you wish to use it on. The first step is to simply log in with your Apple ID. You'll find iCloud on your Mac in Settings, the same place you can find it on your iPhone and iPad. It's true that previous versions of OS X support iCloud, too, but with Mountain Lion, you'll see even more features that leverage iCloud in some neat ways.