Now, that’s great if you want a record of every text message you ever sent or received from your friends and loved ones. But all those messages add up in terms of your precious iPhone and iPad storage—particularly when it comes to memory-hogging pictures and videos.

Don’t worry—iOS will warn you before deleting all those old text messages for good.

If you’d rather delete old text messages and let iOS handle your massive iMessage histories, here’s an easy setting to try.

Tap Settings, Messages, scroll down and tap the Keep Messages setting, then pick an option: 30 days, a year, or forever.

Next, you’ll see a pop-up warning that your’e about to delete old text messages—including any photos or videos. If you haven’t already, now would be a good time to see if there’s anything you’d like to save.

All set? Then go ahead and tap Delete to do some serious iMessage spring cleaning.

Bonus tip

To check all the photos, videos and other attachments in a Messages conversation without having to scroll through the entire thread, just open the conversation, tap Details, and scroll down to the Attachments section. If you see anything you’d like to keep, tap it, tap again to reveal the Action button (the square one with the arrow), then pick an option (such as Save Image).

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If that sounds familiar, it’s probably because your family is (or was) sharing a single Apple ID across several iPhones and iPads, which—until the arrival of the better-late-than-never Family Share feature—was the only way for those under the same roof to share purchased iTunes music, apps, and other digital wares.

But even if you do end up switching to the Family Share system, your loved ones may still find themselves getting duplicate iMessages. That’s because once you share an Apple ID between multiple iDevices, the “Send & Receive” settings in the Messages app tend to get jumbled.

Make sure only your personal numbers and email addresses are selected in Messages’ “Send & Receive” settings.

If you’re having trouble with duplicate iMessages in your household, and the entire Family Share feature, try this (and all of your family members who’ve ever shared an Apple ID needs to do this too, by the way):

• Tap Settings, Messages, Send & Receive. You should now be looking at two lists of email addresses and phone numbers. The first list shows all the numbers and addresses at which you can be reached through iMessage, and the second shows the number or address that a newly composed iMessage originates from.
• Under the “You can be reached by iMessage at” heading, uncheck any email address that isn’t just for you.
• Under the “Start new conversations from” heading, make sure only your phone number is selected—or, if not a phone number (because, say, you have an iPad but not an iPhone), pick an email address that’s yours and yours only.

Now, try sending some iMessages—and, fingers crossed, the duplicate messages should stop.

Bonus tip

Are family members still getting duplicate messages? Go back to the main Messages settings screen, tap Text Message Forwarding, and make sure only your personal devices and checked (and again, your loved ones should do the same).

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Forward an iMessage or text message

You can forward an iMessage in just a few taps.

So, you just got a text message or iMessage that you’d like to forward to someone else. You could try simply copying and pasting the message, but there’s an easier way.

• Tap and hold the message until a little black pop-up appears, then tap the “More” button within the pop-up.
• All the messages in the thread should have scooted a bit to the right, revealing “select” buttons on the left side of the screen, and the message you tapped and held should already be selected. Go ahead and select more messages, if you wish.
• Tap the “Forward” button (it looks like a curved arrow) in the bottom-right corner of the screen; when you do, the message (or messages) you selected will appear in a new message window. Add one or more recipients in the “To” line, then tap “Send” when you’re ready.

Find out exactly when a text message was sent or received

Yes, there are timestamps for each and every message in an iMessage thread, but you’ll need to swipe to reveal them.

If you glance at one of the busier message threads in the Messages app, you’ll see dates and times (a.k.a. “timestamps”) telling you roughly when a particular exchange occurred. But what if you want to know the precise time when a given message was received or sent?

Try this: swipe the display from right to left, holding your fingertip to the screen at the end of your swipe.

Doing so will pull your sent messages (the ones in blue or green, depending on whether your messages were sent as iMessages or garden-variety text messages) to the left, revealing timestamps for each message on the right side of the screen.

Silence an annoying group message

What’s with all the random text messages that just started appearing in iMessage? Most likely, a friend added you to a group iMessage or text-message thread, and now you’re the lucky (or not) recipient of each and every reply.

To mute an annoying group message, open the thread, tap Details in the top-right corner of the screen, then flip on the Do Not Disturb switch. Ah, sweet silence.

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