Leave iPhone messages unread until you're ready

Updated December 2022

Earlier, I shared a way to save your sanity in Outlook by changing the settings that mark emails as ‘read’ in your inbox. I recently found myself wanting a similar feature for my text messages on my iPhone.

For example, someone texts you important information you have to do something with, but the moment you open that text message conversation, it is marked as ‘read’. That means there is no longer a little dot or red number to draw your attention to it later. You go on about your day and forget all about it, until you open that text conversation again and it’s too late.

One way to get around this is to ‘peek’ at new text messages before you’re ready to respond and/or act on the information sent to you.

Here’s how:

1. Open the ‘Messages’ app
2. Firm/hard press (for just over one second) on the text conversation you want to ‘peek’ at
3. Read the most recent text messages
4. When you’re done:
   • Respond to the texts by touching inside the conversation window that popped up
   • Leave the messages as ‘unread’ by touching outside the conversation window

The Long-Awaited iOS Update Has Arrived

With the iOS 16 update of 2022, you can now mark ANY messages as unread so you can come back to them later. (Yes, even after you've opened the conversation!)

Here's how:

1. Push (with pressure) on the conversation you want to mark unread.
2. In the menu that appears, tap 'Mark as unread'.

It's that easy!