Manage, delete messages

Keep track of important messages

To access your important messages and conversations in the Messages app:

Pin up to 3 conversations to keep these groups of messages at the top when you open the app.

Star messages you want to find later.

Pin/unpin conversations

To pin a conversation:

  1. Open the Messages app.
  2. In your conversation list, touch & hold the conversation.
  3. Tap .

To unpin a conversation, touch & hold it, then tap .

Star messages

  1. Open the conversation that has the message you want to star.
  2. Touch & hold the message.
  3. Tap .

To remove a star, on the message, tap .

Find starred messages

To find starred messages across all conversations, go to the top of your conversation list and tap > Starred.

To find starred messages within a specific conversation, open the conversation and tap > Starred.

Delete or archive texts

When you delete a message, you also delete any attached photos or videos. If you want the attachments, be sure to save them before deleting the message.

  • To delete a single message, open the conversation (thread) and touch & hold the message, then touch .
  • To delete or archive all messages in a conversation, touch & hold the conversation, then touch to delete or to archive.
  • To delete or archive multiple conversations, touch & hold the first conversation, then touch the other conversations to select them, and touch or .
  • To see archived messages, tap your profile icon > Archived.

Control notifications for text messages

Follow the instructions below to change all notifications from your messaging app. But, if you want to stop text message notifications only during certain hours or from specific people, use Do Not Disturb instead.

If you use the Messages app

  1. Open the Messages app.
  2. Touch your profile icon > Messages settings.

  3. Touch Notifications and:

    • Turn notifications on or off
    • Change the sound
    • Add or remove vibration

If you use a different messaging app

  1. Touch & hold the app's icon.
  2. Touch App info > Notifications.
  3. Make changes.

Request text delivery reports

See whether recipients receive your messages by requesting delivery reports.

  1. Open the Messages app.
  2. Touch your profile icon > Messages settings
  3. Touch Advanced.
  4. Turn on SMS delivery reports.

Turn group messaging on or off

Group messaging allows conversation participants to reply to all recipients in a single thread. If you do not want multi-recipient SMS messages converted to MMS and want replies sent in separate threads only to you, turn off group messaging.

This feature is not available in all countries.

To adjust the group messaging setting:

  1. In the Messages app, touch > Settings > Advanced.
  2. Touch Advanced.
  3. Touch Group messaging and select an option.