With the introduction of Notification Center, new SMS, MMS or iMessages could be seen on the lock screen or by pulling down the Notification Center. Messages also introduced typing indication, delivery and read receipts. In addition, a user could start their conversation on one device and continue on another. With iMessage, users could send text, picture messages and contacts over WiFi or 3G to other iOS 5 devices without using their carrier quota. The iPhone supported SMS, MMS and iMessage, while the iPad and iPod touch only supported iMessage. IMessage support was added with iOS 5 on October 12, 2011. Developers were provided with a new API that allowed them to add embedded messaging functionality to their apps. iOS 4.0 also included support for a red exclamation mark to appear on the app's icon to warn failure to send a message. It also added support for displaying a character count to notify when one had gone over the standard SMS character limit. Among the new features was the ability to search within text messages, much like the search feature in Mail. Messages received minor upgrades with iOS 4. Other changes included support for copy and paste, and the ability to forward or delete multiple messages at a time.

Messages also gained support for sharing contacts using the vCard standard. The original iPhone did not receive support for MMS, citing hardware challenges. The change in name was due to the iPhone gaining native support for the MMS protocol, in addition to the previously available SMS protocol. It replaced the Text application which had been the native messaging application since the iPhone's inception. Apple released Messages for the iPhone as a built-in application with iPhone OS 3.0 on June 17, 2009.

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