Let’s take a look at all the different methods of saving text messages from your iPhone.
1. Save Message Conversations Using Screenshots
The simplest way to save text messages is by taking screenshots of them. Fun fact: there’s actually more than one way of taking a screenshot on an iPhone. Surprising, isn’t it? The first is the classic, conventional method of simultaneously pressing the Power and Volume Up buttons (if your iPhone has a Home button, press the Power button and Home button instead). Quick, easy and convenient.
The second method will let you take a screenshot easily with just one hand, which is pretty useful if your conversation is a long one. All you have to do is double-tap or triple-tap on the back of your iPhone. However, you must enable this feature to use it. The feature was released in iOS 14, so make sure your device is updated. Here’s how to enable it:
Open Settings and go to Accessibility. Select Touch. Scroll down and select Back Tap. Choose Double Tap or Triple Tap. Once you do so, select Screenshot from the list of options. As you can see, there are multiple other cool features you can choose to activate with back tapping.
Unfortunately, you cannot take full-page screenshots in the Messages app, so you’ll have to make do with regular ones. It may be a little time-consuming, but it will give you the same feel and layout by the end.
2. Convert Text Message Conversations Into PDFs
Now, it’s pretty easy for screenshots of our texts to get lost in an overflowing photo library. There’s a way you can convert them all into a PDF to combine them into a single file, as if you’re reading from a book.
Additionally, you can even make minor edits, like adding text boxes, highlighting, and merging the different PDFs together. All you need to do is use the Files app. Let’s take a look at the process required to get this done:
You start by taking screenshots of all the messages that you want to save. Once done, open Photos, tap Select in the top-right corner, and select all the screenshots you’d like to convert. Tap on the Share button at the bottom. Choose Save to Files from the list of options. Select which folder in the Files app you want your screenshots to go to, and then press Save.
Your PDFs will have been created and are now stored in a folder in the Files app. However, they are all separate PDFs at this point. You can create one big PDF out of all the screenshots instead of different ones for every screenshot. Here’s how:
Open the Files app and go to the folder you’ve saved your screenshots in. Tap on the three horizontal dots in the top corner of your screen and choose Select. Select all the screenshots you want to merge into one PDF. Tap the three horizontal dots in the bottom-right corner and tap on Create PDF. A new PDF will automatically appear. Tap to open it, then tap in the top-left corner of your screen to see all the pages in the PDF. You can drag and drop to change the sequence, add or delete pages, and make many other minor edits.
Read More: Want to Edit a PDF on Your iPhone? Here’s How You Can Do It Using the Files App
You could have also used the Share button to save the screenshots directly to the Books app, instead of Files. This will also create separate PDFs in the app, but Books doesn’t allow you to merge them.
If you’re just looking for an easy way out and want to save your text messages as PDFs without having to take screenshots, you will have to download third-party apps to do so. There are tons of great apps to help you perform this function, such as AnyTrans (Free).
3. Screen Record Your Text Messages
If the conversation is a long one, and taking screenshots is inconvenient and tiresome, this method is a much better option. Screen recording on an iPhone is an extremely simple process. Here’s how to use it:
Go to Settings > Control Center and ensure Screen Recording is added to the controls. Swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen to open the Control Center (if your iPhone has a Home button, swipe up from the bottom of the screen). Tap on the Screen Recording control, which looks like a big, bold dot with the thin circle around it. The screenshot below show the icon better. A count-down timer of three seconds will appear on the screen, after which the icon will turn white and red. This indicates that the screen recording has begun. Everything you open on your device will now be recorded and stored in the form of a video. Open the conversation you’d like to save and scroll through all the messages you want to be seen. Make sure you go slow enough for them to be read on the video. Once you’re done, open the Control Center again and tap on the screen recording button to stop it. Your recording will automatically be saved to the Photos app.
4. Send Text Message Conversations to Another Number or Email
This is a great way to access your text messages from another device, too. If you’re switching to another mobile phone, you can just forward the text messages to the new number. Alternatively, you can even forward your text messages to an email address. The steps required are quick and easy. Let’s take a look:
Open the Messages app and open the conversation you want to save texts from. Tap and hold on any message you’d like to save, then tap More. Select all the text messages you want to save by tapping on them. Once you’re done, tap the Forward button at the bottom of the screen, which looks like an arrow. Type in the phone number or email address you want to save your conversations to and hit the Send button.
You Can Still Save Text Messages on Your iPhone
There may not be a straightforward Save button in the iPhone’s Messages app, but you can still save text messages by multiple other methods. They might be in the form of a simple screenshot, a PDF, a screen recording, or an email. There’s a potential choice for everyone.
