Conversations are living documents; always changing, evolving, and renewing as we communicate with one another. Most iPhone users take for granted that iCloud and the iMessage server will sync and save those chats, but it’s not foolproof.
Those with multiple devices – iPhones, iPads, and Macs more specifically – understand conversations don’t always sync up. A chat on iPad sometimes fails to make it to the iPhone. Even entire snippets of conversations can go missing!
Rather than risk losing important data shared via chat, save your messages and conversations when it’s clear you need to retain information for posterity. We’ll show you how to download text messages from iPhone, how to save text messages, download iPhone text messages to your Mac, export text messages from iPhone to any storage device, and which apps make the process quick and easy.
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Transfer Messages from iPhone to Computer
You could create an entire backup of your iPhone – and you should – but if you’re looking to save your iMessage conversations exclusively without creating a full backup each time, look to AnyTrans. Rob zombie greatest hits rar.
AnyTrans is an excellent app for creating full backups but stands apart in its ability to backup and save photos, music, videos, apps, and messages individually. (In fact, before you can download and save your Messages with AnyTrans, you’ll need to create a full backup of your iPhone!)
You can also migrate any saved data to a new device with AnyTrans or save it to your Mac or storage device for safe keeping.
Here’s how to save text messages on iPhone with AnyTrans:
- Open AnyTrans on your Mac
- Plug your iPhone into your Mac with a Lightning cable
- When you see an image of your phone appear in AnyTrans, tap the “Messages” icon on the right side of the app window
- Select the message threads you’d like to save
- Click the “to Mac” icon at the top right of the AnyTrans window
That’s all it takes! Your messages will be saved to your Mac, where you can tuck them into a folder or offload them to an external drive.
Transfer, Backup, and Restore Your Social Messages
AnyTrans also allows you the option to backup, transfer, or restore conversations from popular social media chat services WhatsApp, LINE, and Viber.
Here’s how to backup social media messages with AnyTrans:
- Open AnyTrans on your Mac
- Plug your iPhone into your Mac with a Lightning cable
- When you see an image of your phone appear in AnyTrans, tap the “Social Messages Manager” icon on the left side of the app window
- Choose “Back Up Now” under the social media app you’d like to backup
- Enter your credentials for the app you’re backing up
- Tap “OK”
- Select “Next” at the bottom of the screen
Now our WhatsApp messages are backed up. Transferring and restoring are similar workflows. Just know that you must first backup your messages from the device you want to restore from before adding them to a new device – and both devices must be plugged into your Mac for this process to work. Here we are adding a WhatsApp chat from a previously backed-up Android handset.
Here’s how to transfer social media conversations with AnyTrans:
- Open AnyTrans on your Mac
- Plug your iPhone into your Mac with a Lightning cable
- When you see an image of your phone appear in AnyTrans, tap the “Social Messages Manager” icon on the right side of the app window
- Choose “Transfer” under the social media app you’d like to restore messages from
Select “Next” at the bottom of the next screen
Your WhatsApp conversations will begin transferring between devices.
So what happens if you just want to restore a previously saved conversation? You may have guessed already that you need to click the ‘restore’ option in AnyTrans! Here’s how it’s done:
- Open AnyTrans on your Mac
- Plug your iPhone into your Mac with a Lightning cable
- When you see an image of your phone appear in AnyTrans, tap the “Social Messages Manager” icon on the left side of the app window
- Choose “Restore” under the social media app you’d like to backup
- Select the message backup you’d like to restore to your iPhone
- Tap the “Next” button at the bottom of the screen
Your backup will restore to your device!
Screenshot your Texts
A good old fashioned screenshot may do the trick if you just need to save a small piece of a chat, but know this only creates an image of the screen, and doesn’t log your chat anywhere. If you’re asking yourself “how do I copy an entire text conversation on iPhone?” know screenshotting is definitely not what you’re looking for.
There are apps out there which will take screenshots and stitch them together, but those are also woefully poor for entire conversations. They limit the number of screenshots that can be stitched, and the more screenshots you add the smaller the overall image size will be, making it harder to read.
Here’s how to backup text messages on iPhone with a simple screenshot on an iPhone with Face ID:
- Simultaneously press the side and volume up buttons
- Release both buttons quickly
After you take a screenshot, a thumbnail appears on the bottom left corner of the screen. You can tap that thumbnail to edit or delete the screenshot, or swipe it left to dismiss it and save it to your Photos library. If you take another screenshot while that thumbnail is on-screen, it won’t show up in the next screenshot.
Here’s how to take a screenshot on an iPhone with Touch ID and a side or top button:
- Simultaneously press the side (or top) and Home buttons
- Release both buttons quickly
Bonus Tip: Clear Your iPhone Storage With Ease
Now that you know how to download text messages from iPhone for safe keeping anywhere you want, it’s time to think about the other files, folder, images, and such occupying space on your iPhone and Mac. More to the point, how many documents or pictures are duplicates, or plain unnecessary?
Gemini for iOS digs deep through your iPhone’s image library and distills all your photos into categories like blurred, screenshots, and more. It helps you quickly and easily delete large collections of images, or bulk delete several at a time without needing to dig through your entire library.
As you poke through the categories Gemini has created, simply tap “delete” at the bottom of the screen to remove them all from your library. All images are pre-selected, so tapping on photos you want to save is critical so you don’t inadvertently delete them (but if you do, they’ll be in the ‘trash’ folder of your Photos app for 30 days, so it’s not as bad as it seems!).
Gemini for Mac focusses entirely on duplicate files and photos, but also looks through your image library to find like photos. For those occasions you snapped a series of pictures in succession to use the best one for sharing with others, Gemini will offer to remove duplicates so you can keep the absolute best photo.
For the files on your Mac, Gemini discovers both photos and files or folders which may be the same. It’s a great way to clear space on Macs with limited storage. Gemini is also the best app to have on your iPhone or Mac before creating backups free of unnecessary documents or images.
Conclusion
Creating full backups of an iPhone will automatically save your chat history. Routine backups are something we should all be doing, too.
We also advise anyone who wants more direct access to their chat history should back up conversations as often (or more frequently) than they backup their devices. A separate chat history backup makes it easy to reference old or historically important chat conversations.
Gemini is a great way to eliminate unnecessary files on Mac and iPhone before a backup, and there’s just no better backup manager than AnyTrans. Both are available for free during a seven-day trial of Setapp, the world’s biggest and best suite of native apps for your Mac. Along with these two incredible apps you’ll get immediate and unlimited access to over 100 others, many of which have iOS counterparts you can try as well!
When your free trial ends, Setapp is only $9.99 per month for access to all the incredible apps in its catalog, so why wait? Give Setapp a try today and liven up your Mac with a ton of great apps!
With Messages for Mac, you can send unlimited messages to any Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that uses iMessage, Apple's secure-messaging service. iPhone owners can use it for SMS and MMS messages, too.
Messages Download For Mac Desktop
Set up iMessage
iMessage is the Apple messaging service you get automatically with your Apple ID.If Messages asks you to sign in, use the same Apple ID that you use with Messages on your iPhone and other devices. It's usually the same Apple ID that you use for iCloud, the iTunes Store, the App Store, and the account you created when you first set up your Mac.
Learn what to do if you get an error when trying to sign in to iMessage.
Have a conversation
- Click the New Message button at the top of the Messages window.
- Type the recipient's name, email address, or phone number, or click and choose a recipient. If they're in your Contacts app, Messages finds them as you type. To start a group conversation, just add more recipients.
- Type your message in the field at the bottom of the window, then press Return to send it.
- To include emoji, click .
- To include an image or other file, just drag or paste it into the message field.
- To include an audio recording, click and record your message.
- To add other items, such as Memoji stickers, GIFs, and message effects, click the apps button .
- After starting a conversation, click the Information button (or Details) in the upper-right corner of the window to take actions such as these:
- Use FaceTime to start an audio call or video call .
- Share a screen .
- Hide alerts, so that you aren't disturbed by notifications about the conversation.
- Share your location temporarily or indefinitely, or send your current location. You can also see the recipient's location—if they're sharing their location with you.
- See all of the photos and files that were exchanged in the conversation.
- Customize the group, such as by changing the group's name or photo, adding members to the group, or leaving the group. If the group has four or more members, you can remove members: Control-click the member's name, then choose Remove from Conversation.
Messages App Apple Download For Mac
New in macOS Big Sur
macOS Big Sur introduces new features to improve conversations:
- Pin a conversation to the top of the conversation list so that you can quickly get to it. Just Control-click the conversation to open a shortcut menu, then choose Pin.
- Help bring your message to the attention of a group member: Either click their name after you type it, or include the @ symbol before their name: “@Jocelyn, see you then!” When you mention someone, their name is highlighted in the message, and they will receive a notification letting them know they’ve been mentioned.
- Create an inline reply to a specific message in a conversation: Control-click the message to open a shortcut menu, then choose Reply. Or click a bubble to select it, then press Command-R.
- Use iMessage apps to add effects to your message.
Use iMessage apps
Starting with macOS Big Sur, Messages includes iMessage apps near the message field. Use it to choose items from your Photos library, add Memoji stickers, add trending GIFs using #images, and use Message Effects such as balloons, confetti, or lasers.
Add a tapback to a message
A Tapback is a quick response that expresses what you think about a message, such as that you like it or think it's funny. Your Tapback is visible to everyone in the conversation who is using iMessage.
- Control-click a message bubble to open a shortcut menu.
- Choose Tapback from the menu.
- Click a Tapback to add it to the message bubble.
Here's another way to add a Tapback: Click a bubble to select it, then press Command-T.
Use Siri to send messages
You can also use Siri to send, read, and reply to Messages. Examples:
- ”Send a message to Susan and Johnny saying I'll be late' or ”Tell Johnny Appleseed the show is about to start” or ”Text a message to 408 555 1212.”
- ”Read the last message from Brian Park” or ”Read my new messages.”
- ”Reply that's great news” or ”Tell him I'll be there in 10 minutes.”
Send text messages to anyone
If you have an iPhone with a text messaging plan, learn how to set up text message forwarding so you can send and receive SMS and MMS messages from your Mac.
Delete a message or conversation
When you delete a message or conversation, it's permanent: You can't get it back.
Delete a message
- Click a message bubble to select it.
- Choose Edit > Delete.
Delete a conversation
- Control-click a conversation to open a shortcut menu.
- Choose Delete Conversation.
- Click Delete.
FaceTime is not available in all countries or regions.