How to Keep Text Messages Private on Your iPhone

If you’re interested in keeping your text messages private on iPhone, there are a few options you can try. Turning off previews and text message notifications will make it harder for others to snoop on your texts. You can also send secret messages with invisible ink. If you’re looking for even more privacy, we’ll talk you through more advanced options, like using third-party apps or locking down your messages with Screen Time.

How to Keep Your Messages Private

To hide message alerts, go to Settings > Notifications > Messages. Toggle off Notifications completely or choose not to show previews.
Use the invisible ink feature in Messages to keep texts hidden until you tap on them.
For extra privacy, lock your messages with a private texting app like Viber, WhatsApp, or Telegram.

Method 1

Method 1 of 8:

Hiding Previews on Your Lock Screen

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One simple way to keep your texts private is to turn off previews on your Lock Screen. If you like, you can also keep text notifications off your lock screen altogether. To get started, open the
Settings app.
This is near the top of the Settings menu.

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Scroll down in the list of apps under the Notification Style header until you find Messages, then tap on it.
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Tap Show Previews and select an option. This option is located under the Lock Screen Appearance header, near the bottom of the menu. By default, this should be set to When Unlocked, which means you have to unlock your phone to see a preview of a text message. You’ll still be able to see text notifications (without previews) while your phone is locked unless you turn that feature off.
- For extra privacy, select Never so that text message previews are never visible, even when your phone is unlocked.
If you don’t want text message notifications to show up on your Lock Screen at all, you can uncheck that option in the main Messages menu. You can also choose not to show alerts in the Notification Center or as Banners when your phone is unlocked.

Method 2

Method 2 of 8:

Turning Off Text Message Alerts

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Open your iPhone's Settings. It's the
grey gear icon, typically found on the Home Screen.
- If you choose this option, you won’t get text message notifications on your iPhone at all. You’ll have to open the Messages app to check for new messages.
You'll find this option near the top of the Settings page.
You’ll find it in the list of apps under the Notification Style header.
4
Slide Allow Notifications to the "Off" position. This option is at the top of the page. Doing so will make the switch turn white, signifying that your iPhone will no longer display notifications of incoming messages.
- Turning off this option will also prevent your phone from vibrating or ringing for incoming messages.
- If you don’t want to turn off notifications completely, you can customize what kinds of notifications you receive—and how—using the other options in the menu.
  - For instance, you can choose to just hide alerts from your Lock Screen or Notification center, or you can set your phone not to show notifications for texts from unknown senders.
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Pause notifications temporarily with Do Not Disturb. If you just want to briefly hide notifications, you can use Do Not Disturb or another Focus mode on your iPhone. To do this, open the Control Center on your iPhone and tap the
Focus button. Text alerts and most other notifications will be blocked until you turn it off.^{[1]
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- To choose a different Focus mode, such as Work or Sleep, press and hold the Focus button to see a list of options.

Method 3

Method 3 of 8:

Muting Individual Conversations

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1
Open the Messages app. If you want to hide notifications from a particular sender while still receiving their messages, you can do so from the Messages app.^{[2]
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- If you choose this option, you’ll have to open the messages app and check the conversation to see if you’ve gotten any new messages.
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Swipe left on the conversation you want to mute. In the main Messages menu, scroll until you find the conversation you want to mute. Swipe left far enough to reveal a pair of icons next to the conversation.
- If you swipe too far left, a menu will open asking if you want to delete the conversation.
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Tap the icon that looks like a bell with a strike through it. This purple icon will appear directly to the right of the conversation when you swipe left. Tap it to turn off notifications for that conversation.
- Alternatively, tap and hold the conversation, then select Hide Alerts from the menu that pops up.
- You’ll see the crossed-out bell symbol in grey next to the conversation if you’ve successfully turned off notifications.
- You can turn notifications back on by swiping left again and tapping the bell symbol, or by pressing and holding the conversation and selecting Show Alerts.

Method 4

Method 4 of 8:

Sending an iMessage with Invisible Ink

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It's the green icon with a white speech bubble icon, typically found on the Home Screen.
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Tap a contact's name. Doing so will open your conversation with that person.
- If you can't find the conversation you need, swipe down on this screen and then type your contact's name into the Search bar at the top of the screen.
- You can tap the box with a pencil icon in the top-right corner of the screen to create a new message.
- If you're already in a conversation with someone, tap the "Back" button in the top-left corner of the screen to view the "Messages" page.
It's at the bottom of the screen. This is where you'll type your message.
It's in the right corner of the "iMessage" (or "Text Message") field.
The "Invisible Ink" feature obscures your iMessage text behind an animation of swirling pixels.
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Tap the white arrow button. Doing so will send your iMessage with invisible ink, meaning your contact will have to tap or swipe over the message to view what's written.
- If you send a message with invisible ink, it will be invisible on your phone unless you tap on it to temporarily reveal it.
- An invisible ink message will only be hidden on the recipient’s end if they are also an iPhone user. Otherwise, it will appear as a regular text message on their phone.
- If you have text message previews enabled on your iPhone, invisible ink messages won’t be readable as previews.

Method 5

Method 5 of 8:

Using Third-Party Texting Apps

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1
Download a texting app with strong privacy features. The Messages app doesn’t have great privacy options, but it’s not the only texting app available. Download a third-party text messaging app from the App Store, and make sure it has the capability of password-locking your texts.
- Some popular options include WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, and Signal.
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Set up a password or PIN for your texts. Most of these apps allow you to lock down your messages with some kind of passcode. Privacy options vary, so check the instructions that come with the app you select.
- Ideally, you should pick a PIN or password that’s different from the one you use to unlock your phone. This is especially important if anyone else has access to your phone and knows the passcode.

Method 6

Method 6 of 8:

Locking Messages with Screen Time

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1
Turn on Screen Time if it’s not already active. With Screen Time, you can set limits on when the Messages app is available. This means other people won’t be able to access messages while the app is limited unless they know your Screen Time passcode. To set up Screen Time:^{[3]
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- Go to
  Settings and select Screen Time.
- Tap App & Website Activity, then select Turn On App & Website Activity.
- Tap Lock Screen Time Settings and set a passcode for Screen Time. This should be different from your iPhone passcode.
In the main Screen Time menu, tap the App Limits option.
You’ll see this option at the top of the menu. Tap the switch to toggle it to the on position. The switch will turn green.
This is at the bottom of the App Limits screen.
In the Choose Apps screen, tap the arrow next to the Social category, then tap the radio button next to Messages. You can also search for Messages with the search field at the top of the screen. When you’re done, tap Next.
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Choose how long you want Messages to be available. On the next screen, you can set how long you want Messages to be accessible. This period of time will need to be at least 1 minute. Once you’ve set the limit, tap Set, then tap Add in the top right corner to confirm.
- Once you’ve used Messages for the set amount of time for the day, it will become unavailable unless you unlock it with the Screen Time passcode.

Method 7

Method 7 of 8:

Deleting Text Conversations

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1
Open your iPhone's Messages. It's the green app with a white speech bubble icon, typically found on the Home Screen.
- Deleting a conversation will cause it to disappear from all your devices, but it won’t delete it from the other person’s devices.
- If a conversation is open in your Messages app, tap the back arrow in the top left corner of the screen to exit to the main menu.
Swipe left far enough so that you see a pair of colorful icons to the right of the conversation. You can swipe even farther left to open a menu, which will give you the option to Delete or Delete and Report Junk.^{[4]
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Tap the trash can icon. Tap the red
trash can to the right of the conversation to delete it. A menu will pop up giving you the option to just delete the conversation or to delete it and report it as junk.
- If you report the conversation as junk, it will be sent to Apple and your cellular network provider.
- You can also press and hold the conversation, then select Delete from the menu that pops up.
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Delete multiple conversations with the ••• menu. If you want to quickly delete several conversations at once, tap the ••• icon in the top right corner of the Messages app. Depending on your Messages setting, you may see an Edit button in the top left corner, which will also allow you to delete conversations. Next:
- Tap Select Messages.
- Tap the radio button to the left of every conversation you want to delete.
- Select Delete in the lower right corner of the screen. Tap Delete again in the pop-up menu to confirm.

Method 8

Method 8 of 8:

Deleting Individual Text Messages

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It's the green icon with a white speech bubble, typically found on the Home Screen.
2
Tap a contact's name. Doing so will open your conversation with that person.
- If Messages opens to another conversation, tap the "Back" button in the top-left corner of the screen first.
Doing so will prompt a pop-up menu at the bottom of the screen.^{[5]
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It's at the bottom of the screen.
5
Tap the bubble next to each text you wish to delete. Doing so will select each message you tap.
- The text you first tapped and held is selected automatically.
It's in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
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Tap Delete [Number] Messages. This option will pop up at the bottom of the screen after you tap the trash can. Tapping it permanently removes the selected messages from your conversation.
- For example, if you selected fifteen messages, this button would say Delete 15 Messages.
- If you're only deleting one message, this button will say Delete Message.

Community Q&A

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Question

Can I hide existing text messages on my iPhone?

Community Answer

There isn't a built-in way to hide existing text messages in iOS, but you can search for apps that will hide your messages by typing "Hide Texts" into the app store and reviewing the results.

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How do I have my lock screen just be a text message?

Community Answer

Go to the settings app. Then go to notifications, messages, show previews, and change it from "always" to "never."

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Can I see an invisible ink text after someone opens it?

Community Answer

Yes. It will not go away unless you delete the messages.

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wikiHow Video: How to Hide Text Messages on Your iPhone

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Tips

To view and delete (or recover) recently deleted messages on your iPhone, open Messages and tap either Edit or Filters in the top left corner of the screen. Then, tap Recently Deleted or Show Recently Deleted.

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There’s no built-in way to passcode-lock the Messages app on your iPhone, but here are some hacks and workarounds you can try.

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If you want to delete your texts from Messages but keep a hidden record of them, you can copy and paste them into a password-protected Notes file.

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The advice in this section is based on the lived experiences of wikiHow readers like you. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share on wikiHow, please submit it in the field below.

If you want to be really secret, type your message in the Notes app and share it with the person you want to talk with. They can type and edit the note so you can see the message. Plus, you can lock notes so they require a password to view them.
When you're changing your notification settings, select "Show Preview" and It will still alert you that you received a text but won't show the message.

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Warnings

Removing texts from a conversation only deletes them from your iPhone. The other person in the conversation will still have a record of your deleted comments.

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