10 Hacks Every Apple Messages User Should Know

Credit: René Ramos/Lifehacker/Apple/Adobe Stock

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Messages is the default chat app for billions of Apple users. If you have an Apple device (but particularly an iPhone), you likely open the app dozens of times every day. And yet, this simple app can do a lot more than send texts. Whether you use it on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you can use these 10 hacks to make Messages a better and more productive chat app.

Adjust your settings to filter out spam in Messages

When you get a new text, you want it to be from a friend, not an obvious scam. Alas, the latter sort are all too frequent. But in recent years, Apple has added some helpful tools to filter out messages from unknown senders, and send obvious spam to its own unique folder.

To set this up, open Settings > Apps > Messages, then choose both "Screen Unknown Senders" and "Filter Spam." The latter will simply send suspected spam to its own folder, but the former comes with added options. Tap "Allow Notifications," and you'll see four settings: "Time Sensitive" is enabled by default and allows unknown senders if your device deems it urgent or important. However, the rest are disabled by default: "Personal," texts from unknown subjects that aren't likely business or organizations; "Transactions," texts or receipts from online orders; and "Promotions," like offers and updates from companies. If you do nothing, all of these types of texts will arrive silently, so you won't be pinged every time you get a coupon from a company you bought something from once. But you can adjust these settings to your liking. If you want to make sure you don't miss out on a text from a new contact, for example, you can enable "Personal" to continue receiving alerts for these types of texts.

Now, head back to Messages. Here, tap the three lines at the top to find your filter categories. "Messages" will only display texts from known contacts; "Unknown Senders" will collect texts from contacts your device doesn't recognize; and "Spam" will round up all likely junk messages. These filters can keep your Messages app clean, while making it easy to check in and make sure the filters didn't pick up a legitimate message by mistake.

Use "When Messaging" to remind yourself to bring something up the next time you text a contact

Apple's Reminders app has, over the years, turned into an excellent tool to keep on task throughout the day. If you need to text your friend something, but don't want to reach out just yet, you could set yourself a Reminder to text them at a later time. Or, even better, you could use this Reminders feature to give you a natural nudge the next time you text them.

First, open the Reminders app, then make a new reminder. From here, tap the (i), then scroll down to "Places & People." Tap the toggle next to "When Messaging," then choose "Select Contact" to pick the person you have in mind. Finally, hit the checkmark in the top right, and you'll notice a new "Messages: [Contact name here]" underneath the reminder.

There are a few ways to share photos with people in Messages. You can share directly from the Photos app, of course, but you can also use the Photos app in the (+) menu. There's nothing wrong with that method, but when you know you want to send a particular shot, it can be a bit clunky to tap (+), then "Photos," then wait for your images to load. Instead, the next time you want to share a photo in Messages, just long-press the (+). It instantly brings up Photos, which can save a bit of time.

You have a few communication methods to choose from in Apple's Messages app. You can type out texts, of course, and you can send audio messages as well. But, as it turns out, you can also write out your messages by hand. You just have to know where to look.

To start, make sure your iPhone doesn't have Portrait Lock enabled by accessing Control Center (swipe down from the top right corner) and ensuring the Portrait mode icon (the lock with the arrow) isn't engaged. Now, open a conversation in Messages and turn your iPhone sideways. Open the keyboard, and you'll notice a new icon that resembles a scribble or cursive letter. Tap that, and you'll open a blank canvas upon which you can draw. (The last 24 handwritten messages you've sent will also be saved and displayed at the bottom of the screen, so you can send them again at a tap.) You can use two fingers to swipe across the canvas to give yourself some more room if you need it. When you're finished, hit "Done," and you'll be able to send your handwritten note promptly.

The (+) menu has a number of interesting functions to explore. You can use "Check In" to automatically confirm with friends and family that you've arrived at your destination, "Polls" to start a vote on any subject you wish, or "Send Later" to schedule a message for a future date and time. Apple has its apps laid out the way it thinks is best, but if you frequently use an app that lives towards the bottom, you might be a bit annoyed by the arrangement. Luckily, you don't need to live with the default app layout here. You can rearrange it as you see fit.

To start, tap (+), then long-press on any Messages app you want to move. After a moment, you'll feel a haptic, confirming you locked on to the app. Now, drag it anywhere you like in the list. Personally, I drag all of Apple's AI apps, like Genmoji and Image Playground, to the bottom, and float more useful or frequently used apps, like Send Later and #images, to the top.

Use this setting to translate conversations automatically

If you have friends or family that speak a different language than you, there's a Messages feature that could make it easier to text back and forth. Open your conversation, then tap their name at the top. Scroll down, then tap the toggle next to "Automatically Translate." If you already have chats in a different language from your device's target language, Messages will automatically recommend the language to translate from. Otherwise, you can choose your contact's primary language from Apple's list. You'll now see a new "Translating [target language]" button at the bottom of your chat, which you can use to stop the translation at any time. All that's left to do is recommend your contact do the same on their end.

Lock your Messages app to prevent unauthorized access

What happens in Messages stays in Messages, which means interested parties may be eager to scroll through your chats for a peek at your secrets. If you have conversations you don't want others seeing, or you just want to boost your privacy overall, you can lock your Messages app behind Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode. That way, even if you hand your unlocked iPhone over to a friend, or it's swiped from your hands as you're using it, no one will be able to open your Messages app without your face, fingerprint, or PIN.

To lock Messages, long-press its app icon on your Home Screen, then choose "Require Face ID" (or "Require Touch ID" or "Require Passcode," depending on your device and its settings). Apple will show you a pop-up, warning you that other apps won't be able to access its content without your authentication, and that you won't see Messages content in previews or Spotlight. If you're cool with that, hit "Require Face ID" again, and your iPhone will scan your face or fingerprint, or ask for your passcode. Once approved, Messages is locked.

Use RCS to send encrypted messages to Android friends

One of the best steps Apple has taken in recent years has been adopting RCS support. It's now finally possible to text Android friends in Messages without it being a total mess. While the bubbles are still green, the experience is largely the same as iMessage: You can send high-res images and videos; create functioning group chats, and see typing indicators. We've come so far.

Perhaps the biggest advantage here, however, is support for end-to-encryption (E2EE). Texts with Android users used to be entirely unencrypted, while iPhone users benefited from iMessage's native E2EE. RCS thankfully supports E2EE, but Apple only adopted E2EE RCS support in May. That's a lot of acronyms to say: Your Android chats can now be encrypted, but you need to make sure you set up your conversations properly.

First, you'll need to make sure your iPhone is running iOS 26.5 or later and that your Android friend is using a chat app that supports E2EE RCS. (For the most part, that'll be Google Messages.) Next, go to Settings > Apps > Messages > RCS Messaging, and ensure that both "RCS Messaging" and "End-to-End Encryption (Beta)" are enabled. Now, you don't need another chat app to send protected messages to your non-iPhone friends.

Use Advanced Data Protection to encrypt your Messages backup

Speaking of encryption, while your iMessages are end-to-end encrypted, they might not actually be fully protected: If you back up your messages to iCloud, there's a good chance your backup itself isn't encrypted, which leaves your texts vulnerable if Apple's servers are successfully hacked. And by not encrypting your backups, Apple has access to your message backups, which leaves a gap in your overall privacy and security.

To fill that gap, you can use Advanced Data Protection, which encrypts most of the data you back up to Apple's servers. When you do this, things like your Messages backup, but also your device backup, iCloud Drive, Notes, Photos, and more are all protected by encryption. That's great for privacy, but comes with a risk: Since Apple will no longer have the ability to access your data, it won't be able to help you if you lose access to your recovery information. As such, proceed with caution. You'll find the setup instructions by heading to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud > Advanced Data Protection.

Use this setting to automatically delete one-time passcodes

The internet's favorite Messages feature is when your one-time passcodes pop up automatically in your iPhone's keyboard. It really is the best, but there's another problem it doesn't actually solve: Those codes stay in your Messages app unless you manually delete them. That's why I highly recommend turning on another lesser-known Messages setting, so one-time passcodes are automatically deleted after use.

To enable it, head to Settings > General > AutoFill & Passwords, then, under "Verification Codes," tap the toggle next to "Delete After Use." From now on, whenever you use AutoFill to enter a one-time passcode, your device will delete it from your Messages app.