Search within your text messages on iPhone

In iOS 16.2 and later, you can search for specific things across conversations and within images.

Reveal the search field in Messages

1. In Messages, open your list of conversations.

2. Tap the search field at the bottom of the screen in iOS 26. In iOS 18 or earlier, swipe down from the list of conversations to reveal the search field at the top of the screen.

3. Enter what you want to find and tap search.

   

You can search for photos in messages based on what's pictured, like a dog, car, person, or text. And you can narrow the results by using multiple filters—like searching for messages with a specific person, content types like photos or links, or keywords—to make it easier to find exactly what you're looking for. In iOS 26, you can also turn on Apple Intelligence to make it easier to find specific messages or media through natural language search.

If you recently deleted a conversation, it's not included in search results. Learn how to recover deleted messages in iOS.

Find attachments from a specific conversation

1. Open the conversation that you want to search.

2. Tap the name of the group or contact at the top of the message. If you're using iOS 14 or earlier, or iPadOS, tap the Info button.

3. Swipe left or right then tap a category to find Photos, Links, Documents, and more from the conversation. Touch and hold an image or attachment to show options like Save, Copy, Share, and Delete.