Built-in integration with your Photos library, access to Memoji Stickers, and the quick GIF search features from iOS and iPadOS are all accessible when you click the App Store icon next to the text entry field. You can send iMessage effects from your Mac now, too. This helps to rectify longstanding disparities between the two versions of the app-you’ll actually see balloons when someone sends them, instead of seeing “(sent with Balloons)” and using your imagination. It’s now a Catalyst app, which means that instead of merely aping the look of the iPad Messages app, it essentially is a windowed version of the iPad Messages app, give or take a handful of Mac-specific tweaks and multi-window support.
The old Messages app had removed any third-party messaging functions it once had, but it was still fundamentally the same app it had been since Apple overhauled and replaced iChat back in Mountain Lion.
