George runs through the ins and outs of Apple iMessages, SMS, MMS, iCloud, Press and hold vs 3d Force Touch of icons for app specific options.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206896

Question 1 - Messages with animation.  

Press and hold send message icon for animation options.  Screen will give you pages of different animations.

Question 2 - Add favorites to messages and phone calls.

From phone app, press star, choose contact, click contact to pick favorite way to contact that person.

Question 3 - Margarete warnes to look for phone cases with magnets included.  This can cause problems with the camera. Older apps that use 32 bit programming will not work on the newer ios and mac operating systems.

Developers have to update their apps to 64 bit programs or that program will have to be removed.  

Question 4 - SSD vs traditional hard drives.

SSD or solid state drives are usually smaller and more expensive but do not have any moving parts and are much faster than traditional drives.  Upgrading an older computer with a SSD greatly increases the speed as long if you have the minimum 8gb of ram. Most macs easily last 10 years.