Use Messages on your iPhone or iPad

Send texts, photos, videos and more. Pin your conversations. Set Messages to automatically delete verification codes after you’ve used them with AutoFill.

Send a message on your iPhone or iPad

  1. Open Messages.

  2. Tap the Compose buttonCompose button to start a new message. Or go to an existing conversation.

  3. Type your message, then tap the Send buttonSend button.

With iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 and later, you can also use inline replies and mentions to bring specific messages and people to attention within the messages.

Delete a message

Recover deleted messages

Edit a message

Undo a sent message

What to do if you can’t send or receive messages

What to do if you can’t sign in to Messages

Reply from the Lock Screen

  1. From the Lock Screen, touch and hold the notification you want to reply to. Or, depending on your device, you may need to swipe left over the notification and tap View.*

  2. Type your message.

  3. Tap the Send buttonSend button.

If you have an iPhone X or later, or an iPad with Face ID, and can’t reply to a message from the Lock Screen, go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode, then turn on Reply with Message. If you have an iPhone SE (2nd and 3rd generation), iPhone 8 or earlier, or an iPad, go to Settings > Touch ID & Passcode > Allow Access When Locked, then turn on Reply with Message.

* Touch and hold is available on most devices that support iOS 13 and later, or iPadOS.

In Messages, use the pin icon to choose which conversations to keep at the top of your conversations page.

Pin important conversations

  1. In Messages, tap Edit or the More buttonMore button.

  2. Tap Edit PinsEdit Pins, then tap the Pin buttonPin button.

  3. Tap Done.

You can also touch and hold a conversation to pin it. In iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 and later, you can pin up to nine conversations.

Change your name and photo

  1. In Messages, tap Edit or the More buttonMore button.

  2. Tap Edit Name and PhotoPhoto.

  3. Edit your name. Or tap the image circle to choose an image, photo, emoji or Memoji.

  4. Tap Done.

Your name and photo can be shared with anyone using iMessage, but you'll be asked to confirm that you want to share with someone when sending or replying to a new message. You can also turn sharing on and off. Just complete steps 1-2, and turn Name and Photo Sharing on or off.

In Messages, you can choose the name and photo you share in conversations.
To stop notifications for a conversation, swipe left over the conversation and reveal the Alerts button.

Stop notifications for a conversation

  1. Open Messages.

  2. Swipe left over the conversation that you want to mute.

  3. Tap the Alerts buttonAlerts button.

When Hide Alerts is turned on, the Alerts buttonAlerts button will appear next to the conversation. This will only stop notifications for that conversation, not your device. You’ll still receive all other messages and see notifications for them on your Lock Screen.

Find attachments from a conversation

  1. Open the message.

  2. Tap the name of the contact at the top of the message. If you’re using iOS 14 or earlier, or iPadOS, tap the Info buttonInfo button.

  3. You’ll see Photos, Links, Documents and more. Touch and hold an image or attachment to show options, such as Save, Copy, Share and Delete.

From your conversations page in iOS 16.2 and later, you can also search to find photos in Messages based on their content, such as a dog, car, person or text.

Find out more about search in Messages

Set Messages to automatically delete verification codes in iOS 17 or later

  1. In the Settings app, tap Passwords.

  2. Tap Password Options.

  3. Turn on Clean Up Automatically.

In iOS 17 and later, the Messages app can automatically delete messages that contain password verification codes after you’ve used that code.

With this setting turned on in iOS 17 or later, your iPhone will automatically delete verification codes in Messages or Mail after the code has been used with AutoFill.

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