How to Mark iPhone Texts as Unread

The beauty of text messages is that people can reach you at all times of the day, but the downfall is that people can reach you at all times of the day. If you're someone who doesn't always respond to text messages right away and could use a helpful reminder to get back to people, marking your iPhone texts as unread will probably come in handy.

iOS 16 allows you to mark text messages as unread on your iPhone, saving you from forgetting to respond to a text you opened but didn't have the time (or energy or desire) to respond to immediately. To ensure you see your unread messages, you can even change the view in the Messages app to only see unread messages.

1. Tap the conversation you want to mark as unread and hold until the message preview open. From the pop-up at the bottom of the screen, tap Mark as Unread.
2. You can also swipe right on the conversation to mark as unread. Swiping all the way will automatically mark the message as unread. If your finger happens to swipe part of the way, release and tap the Mark as Unread button on the left.
3. To select several conversations at once to mark as unread, tap the three dot menu at the top of the screen. From the drop-down menu, tap Messages. Select the messages you want to mark as unread and tap Unread at the bottom of the screen.

1. Go to Settings > Messages.
2. Scroll down to Message Filtering and turn on Filter Unknown Senders,
3. In the Messages conversation list, select Filters then tap Unread Messages. Here you'll see a list of all your unread messages, including messages you haven't read and those you've marked unread.