How to Change the Duration That You Can Keep Your Messages For in iOS
While we can do pretty much anything on our iPhones these days, many people primarily use their devices for sending messages. However, not managing what stays on your phone can result in additional storage being used later down the line. This can be a problem if someone has shared larger files with you, such as photos.
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If you want more control over how long iMessages stay on your phone for, you can easily customize this option. And in this article, we’ll show you precisely how to do that. You’ll also discover what your options are for timescales. Let’s get started.
How Long Can You Keep Messages on Your iPhone?
When deciding how long you want to keep messages for in iOS, you don’t have a huge range of choices. Nonetheless, you do have a bit of wiggle room.
You can decide whether you want to keep your messages for 30 days or whether you’d like them to automatically delete after one year. Alternatively, you can choose to keep them forever.
Note that regardless of the timescale you choose, you can always delete messages earlier than that. Swipe left on a conversation in the Messages app, hit the trash icon, and press Delete when the confirmation pop-up appears.
How to Change the Duration You Keep Messages For in iOS
Now that you know how long you can keep your messages for on your iPhone, let’s look at how you can change the duration. Follow the steps below:
- Open the Settings app.
- Scroll down to Messages or search for the app in the search bar. Once you’ve found it, tap to open the next set of instructions.
- Look for the Message History section; you’ll need to scroll a little down the page before it appears.
- Select the Keep Messages tab.
- You’ll see the three options that you have to choose from on the next page. Click on whichever fits your needs best.
Once you’ve chosen your preferred option, your changes will take immediate effect. You can switch between the different timescales as frequently as you want.
Customize How Long You Want to Keep Your iPhone Messages For
Messages is a useful app, but it’s a good idea to keep your correspondences in check. One of the main reasons is that lots of texts can, over time, decrease the amount of free storage on your iPhone. This is especially true if someone shares larger forms of media with you.
Keeping your messages in check is also a good idea for ensuring that you only have access to correspondences that are actually meaningful. Whether you want to keep your messages for 30 days, a year, or forever, you’ll find it easy to customize this feature in iOS.
Danny is a freelance writer who has been using Apple products for over a decade. He’s written for some of the largest technology publications on the web and previously worked as an in-house writer before carving his own route. Danny grew up in the UK, but now writes about tech from his Scandinavian base.
