One of the best new features about iOS 5 besides the new notification center is undoubtedly iMessage. This new feature of iOS allows users of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch to send messages to each without incurring any text messaging charges from their cellphone carrier. Built into the Messages app, iMessage allows iOS 5 users to send text, photos, video, contact cards, and maps between iOS devices — just as they would via SMS or MMS.
Using iMessage is easy, though users first need to upgrade their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to iOS 5 via iTunes. After upgrading, any SMS or MMS sent to another iOS 5 user will automatically send via iMessage, alleviating both users from incurring a fee for sending and receiving the text (you will know if a message is sent via iMessage because the text bubbles will be blue instead of green). If you have friends in your contact list that have an iPhone and have upgraded to iOS 5, these messages will become iMessages. The best part about iMessage, however, is the ability to send messages to any iOS user, even without knowing their phone number.
For BlackBerry users (either past or present), this feature will seem similar to BlackBerry Messenger, which allows users to send messages exclusively to other BlackBerry users, free of charge. With iMessage, you just need to know an email address that the other iOS 5 user has associated with their iMessage account and then send a message to that email. It will automatically send via iMessage instead of SMS or MMS. By default, your Apple ID email is associated with your iMessage account, but this may not be the ideal email address to share with others. (For example, my Apple ID is my college email address, which still works but is not easy to remember nor an address I want publicly shared.)
To use iMessage more effectively, you can add your email address to the list of emails associated with your iMessage account so that others can send you iMessages, even without knowing your phone number — or even needing to know your Apple ID. The option to add a new email address, in addition to your Apple ID email, can be found in the Settings under Messages. Just click Receive At to add a new email address — you can even add more than one so that colleagues from work as well as family and friends can reach you at the address where they each know you best. Once you have associated these emails with your iMessage account, you can tell other iOS 5 users to send you a message to that email of your choice — without ever needing to share your phone number.
Are you using the new iMessage feature of iOS 5? Let us know what you think of the service in the comments.