With the latest instant messaging apps like iMessage, people can now create group chats and add as many users they want. But adding too many users can also cause a fuss in the group and those groups will always be active and one or the other will always be sending a message to the group.

As a result, everyone who is a part of that group will have their phone constantly buzzing and then people tend to mute those groups. Once users have muted the group chats, they won’t get any notification of the messages and they might even miss important messages of the group as well.

So, making sure that an important message is seen by everyone or the person who should see the message is a bit tricky.

Obviously, you can send the chat in their personal window, but then it will defeat the whole purpose of being in a group chat. Not only that, you will have to send the messages in context to the group chat and explain the whole scenario before you come to the point.

Starting with iOS 14, people can now tag or mention people who are in the iMessage group chats and also one-on-one chats. A very handy tool that is useful in group chats.

Who Can You Mention in iMessage?

Anyone who is in the iMessage group chat and is part of the same conversation as you are, then you can mention that person. You won’t be able to mention anyone who is not a member of that group, to mention anyone outside that group, you first need to add them and then you will be able to mention them in the group conversation.

However, there is a small catch of this whole mentioning person in group chats of iMessage. You need to be on iOS 14 in order to be able to mention someone, but the rest of the people don’t need to be particularly on iOS 14.

All of the people who are a part of the group regardless of their iOS version will be able to see the mention and will be available to be mentioned. But, if a person isn’t using iOS 14, then they will see that particular message as a regular text only, and this might lead to miscommunications.

How to Mention Someone in iMessage

On iMessage tagging or mentioning someone in group chats is pretty simple and straightforward. There are two quick and easy methods through which you can mention anyone in the group chats.

1. Start composing your message inside the group chat, then type the name of the person as it is saved in our contacts to mention them.
2. Some messaging apps like Telegram and Whatsapp require you to put an @ symbol before you mention someone, but in iMessage, you don’t need to add @ anywhere in the chat to mention someone. Writing their full name, first name or last name will get the job done for you. Just make sure to write the full name, you cannot type a partial first or last name. As soon as you type the name correctly and completely, it will turn grey, this confirms that you have successfully mentioned someone in your chat.
3. Tap on the name or anywhere in the message box, and you should see their contact photo or their initials should appear. Tap on it to mention them.
   
4. If there is more than one person with the same name, then you will get an option to choose who you want to mention. You can tap on their name to select the one you want to mention.
   
5. Alternatively, you can also use the @ symbol to mention someone. Just type the @ and then followed with the name of the person. You can type their full first name, last name or the entire name to mention them in the group chat. Once you mention a person using @ and their name, the @ symbol will disappear, and in the chat box, you will see the name of the person whom you have mentioned.
6. On the other hand, if in the group there are two people with the same name, then even while using @ you will have to tap on their name from the small context menu that appears, only then you will be able to mention them. Otherwise, no one will be mentioned.

What Happens when you Mention Someone?

Whenever you mention someone on iMessage, the other person will see their name with bold blue lettering in the message while the rest of the text will remain the same. Also, if the conversation isn’t opened by the user, then they might get a notification that will say “ABC” mentioned you.

On tapping the notification, it will redirect them to the exact message where you have mentioned them regardless of other unread messages. The particular message will be shown to them in bold blue letters which indicate that a person has mentioned them.

Earlier we said that the other person might get a notification, well that is because it depends on whether the phone is on DND, or that particular group is muted or set to DND then he won’t get the notification. By default, on iMessage setting is configured to deliver the notifications for mentions and even if you choose to hide alerts for a conversation.

So, if they haven’t changed or modified their settings from the iMessage settings then they should get the notification of mentions.

If they have disabled the notifications for iMessage altogether, or if they left their phone on DND, then they won’t get a notification for any message or even for mentions.

Regarding other people in the group, they will see the name of the person you mentioned in bold, but nothing special, and they won’t even get any special mention notifications.

Can We Stop Someone from Mentioning Us?

No, you cannot stop someone from mentioning you in iMessage right now. The only thing you can do is either leave the group or kick that person out of the group. Or else you can hide notifications for mentions.

Note- You can only hide alerts for mentions if the conversation is also on DND. If the conversation is not on DND, then any notification for mentions would be just like a regular notification in the chat and they wouldn’t bother you.

On your iPhone, go to settings and scroll down to messages and then tap on it. The settings for messages will open. Next, you need to scroll down and then turn off the toggle for Notify Me.

Conclusion

Getting the attention of other people in a group chat can be a bit difficult, especially when the other person has put the group or iMessage on mute. Since group chat messages are piled up most of the time, half of the people don’t even read those messages and can miss any important part of the conversation.

This is when mentioning people can come to the rescue. By mentioning people in the important messages of the group, there are chances that they might read the message which is important since it has their name mentioned on it, and it will also be shown to them in bold blue letters.

You can also mention multiple people in the same message in a group chat, considering all of them are present in the group.