This article by me at Forbes has now been updated to include news of the iOS 16.6 drop into the developer program channel and the first real sign that iMessage contact key verification could be a reality this year after all.
The new stickers/Tapback functionality is interesting, but for my money the biggest improvement in Messages is the demotion of voice messages.
I have been accidentally triggering voice message recording for years, and have never deliberately sent one. The UI for this feature was terminally broken.
I do worry about the accessibility implications (there are surely people who rely on this and their lives just got harder), but this will be a quality of life improvement for me.
Have you switched to a proper end-to-end encrypted messenger app yet?
The new year is a good time to do that!
Try @threemaapp or @session and let anyone out there using Telegram or Meta (Facebook) Messenger or WhatsApp or iMessage/SMS know that there are better options available now.