Change General preferences in Messages on Mac

Set Up Name and Photo Sharing

Set up name and photo sharing to share your name and photo with the people you choose.

Name

After you set up name and photo sharing, edit your first and last name.

Share Name and Photo

After you set up name and photo sharing, deselect to stop sharing your name and photo.

Share Automatically

After you set up name and photo sharing, choose to share your name and photo with only your contacts or have Messages prompt you before your name and photo are shared in a new conversation.

Keep messages

Choose how long to keep message conversations in your account. For example, if you choose 30 Days, your conversations (and all attachments) are available in Messages for 30 days. After that, they are automatically removed.

See Delete messages and conversations.

Notify me about messages from unknown contacts

Select to receive a notification whenever anyone contacts you. If you don’t select this option, you get a notification only if you’re contacted by someone who is listed in Contacts or is someone you previously received messages from.

Notify me when my name is mentioned

Select to receive a notification whenever anyone mentions you in a conversation.

Auto-play message effects

Play full-screen effects automatically when received.

Play sound effects

Play the default sound effect for when any event occurs. For more details, see Play sound effects.

Message received sound

Choose the sound that plays when a message is received.

Text size

Drag the slider to adjust the size of text in Messages.