Google's new iMessage extensions allow iPhone users to drop all sorts of Google-curated information into their chats: from weather forecasts and nearby restaurants to trending YouTube videos and amusing GIFs. It's a much faster way to communicate and one of our favourite extensions in a long while. Here's how to get it on your phone right now.

If you're an Apple user, you may have been experiencing problems lately, after it was discovered that a specific character from the Telugu alphabet caused a heap corruption and could crash devices and apps, including iMessage and third-party services like Twitter and Whatsapp.

Apple have now released a security update which fixes the problem for all four of its operating systems.

Google has released more messaging apps than I can remember (Allo, Android Messages, Messenger, Hangouts, Gchat, the list goes on), but the company has never been able to come up with a single service that can easily handle your messages on all platforms the way iMessage does for iOS and Mac devices. Now, Google may have finally figured it out by copying one of Apple's best features: Desktop SMS messaging.

If it wasn't for iMessage, I would have ditched my iPhone for Android years ago, but because the rest of my family (and most of my friends) use iOS devices, I'm locked into Apple's world. Otherwise, I would be missing out on iMessage-only group chats (I know it's pathetic, but it's true).

Apple keeps giving us reasons to say goodbye. iOS 11 is buggy as hell, with the most recent error making iPhones almost unusable and the latest version of macOS briefly exposed Mac owners to a major vulnerability. As for the iPhone X, it may be pretty sleek for an iPhone, but Apple's still playing catch-up to its Android competition.

iOS: If you live in your Messages group chats, you know how cumbersome it can be to share something other than pictures of yourself. Popping in and out of other apps, copying and pasting links, looking for that share button that seems to be in a different spot every time -- it can get frustrating. Luckily, you can eliminate the app-switching annoyance by using Message's App Store, which lives right next to your text box in the Messages app.

Spotify's latest update adds iMessage support, making it easier to share tracks with your friends during text conversations. Best of all, both sender and receiver can play the shared tracks without opening the app itself -- at least until you want to listen to the whole song.

What you say in your iMessages may be somewhat private and safe from the prying eyes of law enforcement, but the people you have in your contacts list isn't. In fact, Apple logs your iMessage contacts almost every time you enter a new number to start a message.