When Apple posted the Messages Beta for the Mac over four years ago, I knew I would feel right at home. iChat was long overdue for an upgrade, and bringing iMessage to the Mac would further bridge the divide between iOS and Mac OS X. I was excited to start messaging my friends and family from the comfort of my computer, until I realized, “Where’s the camera button?”
Apple has included webcams in their line of notebook computers since the first generation of MacBooks. In fact, it was because of these cameras (and Intel CPUs) that I was initially drawn to Apple’s products. Including a camera standard into a computer seemed unheard of to me, and I remember thinking that maybe this company was just plain crazy. Nonetheless, I spent hours at the Apple Store playing around with Photo Booth taking pictures and emailing them to myself.
Today, I barely even use the camera on my MacBook Pro. I prefer to take FaceTime and Skype calls on my iPhone because of the camera quality, and Photo Booth may as well have been forgotten. The latest major updates I recall being were face detection, and new filters. I just don’t open Photo Booth up any more.
The camera in my MacBook doesn’t have to go unused, though. Messages on the Mac is still ripe for re-introducing the camera’s usage. iOS already has a quick camera button as of iOS 8, so there’s no reason for Apple not to bring it to the Mac. Mac OS X even has all the UI elements necessary to simulate iOS 8’s functionality in Messages. You may have seen it if you’ve ever changed your user image and set it using the camera.
While I know that the MacBook Pro’s camera is not going to be better than the phone, having the camera option built-in would allow me to bring more personality to my conversations. Images will be grainy yes, but it’s such a small feature to add that could have an immediate impact. Sometimes words aren’t enough to express what I want to say and switching to my phone just take a silly selfie seems tedious.
Mac OS X’s messages already includes Voice Memos, emoji, and even voice dictation (double-click the FN key), but for some reason or another, Apple never brought the camera functionality over. Maybe it was an active decision not to bring it over. Having thousands of users realizing the camera on the computer’s are still pretty low-res may not be favorable for Apple. Regardless of that, however, introducing the quick camera option could cut down on my desire to switch to my phone so often.
If Apple does bring the quick camera functionality to Messages, I’d hope that MacBook Selfie Sticks don’t actually become a reality.
How about you? What else would you like to see Apple bring to Messages on the Mac?
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I 2nd this article. Not sure why something so obvious wasn’t included ages ago.
It’s weird right? They add in other features, but seemingly “forget” the camera.
I third it! Love using the Mac to send messages quickly but sending photos is a pain in the butt!
Yes, I’ve wanted this since I got my first Mac last year. Couldn’t figure out how to add photos until I asked. Adding the camera button would make it so much easier.
At one point I had to confirm with a friend that it never existed because I really thought it did. I guess I just wanted it that badly.
I would love to have this feature, I think they should have released it when it was released for iOS.
Agreed. It’s almost like Apple wants enough of the same features, but not all.
I’d love to see Apple Messages available iCloud.com. I’m stuck on a Windows system at work, and continue to run down my iPhone’s battery while messaging my family throughout the day. Seeing as Messages is already tied to my iCloud account, it wouldn’t take much to integrate it in to iCloud.com. And this would still allow for integration with Photos, assuming the user is using iCloud Photos.
…Just my thoughts.
It seems like a problem that is solved 90% of the time by just grabbing your iPhone that is likely right next to you to send that one photo message you need sent. I guess it would come in handy in the 10% of the time (or probably even less of a % since most people panic without their phones in arms reach) that your phone was away.
That said, they should add it……just not sure many people would use it over their phone right next to them with a better camera.
I just wish they would improve the performance on the Photo Library dialog box. Right now it takes about 10 seconds to open and displays oldest photos first rather than most recent photos.
Yeah, that’s definitely another annoyance I have right now as well.
I wish Messages would capitalize the first letter of your message just like iOS dies. Secondly, I wish double-tapping the spacebar had the same effect to insert a period. Lastly, how come no predictive texting option? I, too, would like to see a camera button as well. Am I missing something with Messages?
I just think that Messages and FaceTime should merge into one App.
They could start by actually making iMessage work. I have it disabled as I’ve had too much trouble with it not being able to send a message. I believe much of it could be solved by being able to enable/disable iMessage per contact.
Inserting images into any application is terrible in OS X. Most of the time I don’t want anything from Photos, I want an image from a for I’ve set up but the OS makes it difficult to find. Awkward drag and dropping is the easiest way to bypass the native approach.
I don’t know why they treat it so differently, but I’d like to be able to send files via imessages to my iOS device from my Mac and be able to save them. I can send an audio file from my Mac to my iPhone, but my iPhone can only play it, it cannot save it. I don’t know why behind the scenes my iPhone can’t tell where the file should be saved to.
Hi, does anybody know where to get this wallpaper?
Here ya go Jan :) https://unsplash.com/photos/7BjmDICVloE
Thanks :) Beautiful picture :)