How to add favorites to text Messages on iPhone

Table of Contents Show

Search Limitations
How to Search for Text Messages with the Messages App
How to Search Your Text Messages with Spotlight
How do I set favorites in Messages?
How do you favorite a message on iMessage?

Pinning a text message on your phone is a great way to keep your most important text conversations on your radar. By pinning a text, you’re essentially adding it to a priority spot at the top of your other messages so it is always easy to access. Here’s how to pin and unpin text messages on your iPhone.

MORE: How to hide likes on Instagram posts

Go to your text messages, then press and hold someone’s name. This will appear:

Select “Pin.”

MORE: Covering international, national and local news

When you pin a text convo it will appear at the very top of your text messages like this:

So you will no longer need to scroll through all of your messages to find the person you want to text.

I think of pinning messages akin to adding someone’s number to your favorites list. Both are quick ways to find the person you want to get in touch with via text message or call.

To unpin a text, navigate to your pinned messages. Select and hold until the menu pops up again and choose “Unpin.”

MORE: Sign up for media consulting services!

Now you know how to pin and unpin text messages!

Support our blog!

Support our blog with a monthly donation!

Support our blog with a yearly donation!

Choose an amount

Or enter a custom amount

Your contribution is appreciated.

DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearly

To search within text messages on an iPhone or iPad, open the Messages app, then enter what you'd like to search for into the search box. Alternatively, go to the Home screen and swipe downward from the middle of the screen with one finger, and use that search bar instead.

Text messages serve as a handy historical record of conversations we have with others, including major events, links we share, or otherwise. Few realize that you can easily search through your entire text message history on the iPhone, which may help you in a pinch. Here’s how.

Search Limitations

Before you start your search, know that you can only search through text messages saved as conversations within the Messages app on your iPhone. This applies to both messages sent over SMS and iMessage. If you have deleted or cleared conversations within Messages in the past, they will not be searchable.

If you’ve synced your messages to an iPad using iCloud, you can even search your message history on and iPad.

RELATED: How to Quickly Search Within Settings on an iPhone or iPad

But if you have ample history available—and many people have conversations stretching back years—then you’ll have plenty to search through. There are two main ways to do it.

How to Search for Text Messages with the Messages App

The best way to search through your text message history is using the Messages app. You’ll be able to quickly see the most results and browse through them easily.

First, open the Messages app. If you are in a Conversation view, press the back arrow until you are on the main “Messages” screen.

Tap on the Search bar near the top of the screen, then type what you’d like to search for. The screen will change into a list of top Conversations that match your search.

If you’d like to see more results, tap “See All.” Or if you’d like to see a result closely, tap on the conversation, and you will be taken to that position in your conversation history.

At any time you can tap on the back arrow and review the other search results, or you can clear the search bar and search for something else.

How to Search Your Text Messages with Spotlight

You can also search through your text message history using Spotlight Search. To open Spotlight, go to the Home screen and swipe downward from the middle of the screen with one finger.

In the search bar, type what you’d like to find in your text messages.

Search results from many different apps will appear on the screen (unless you’ve turned them off in Settings). Scroll through them until you find the Messages section. Below that, you will see relevant search results from your text messages.

If you’d like, you can tap on the result to be taken to the conversation in the Messages app.

If Messages do not appear on your Spotlight search results, open Settings and navigate to “Siri & Search,” then scroll down to the Messages app in the list and tap on it. In the section labeled “In Search,” tap on the “Show In Search” option until the switch is turned on.

After that, your Messages results should show up in Spotlight Search again. Have fun combing through history!

How do I set favorites in Messages?

Open the conversation that has the message you want to star. Tap and hold the message you want to star. At the top, tap Star .

How do you favorite a message on iMessage?

Press the mark message button as a favorite. In Android you have it at the top of the screen in a star-shaped icon. On iPhone you will see it in the context menu that appears when you select the message.