If you send and receive a lot of text messages, the Messages app may take up a lot of space on your iPhone or iPad. Not only can it store your text message history, but it can also save photo and video attachments. If you're running out of space, here's how to free up space.
See how much space is being used by the Messages app
You can see how much space the Messages app is using on your device from the Storage screen. To do this, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage (or iPad Storage)" and wait for everything to load (it may take about 20 seconds or so).
Next, scroll down the list and look for the Info app. You'll see how much storage space it consumes. In my case, it takes up 1.25 GB.
If your iPhone is taking up a lot of space, read on to learn how to empty storage space on iPhone.
Automatically delete old information
To prevent messages from piling up forever and taking up more and more storage space, you can set all messages to delete themselves after a certain period of time.
Keep in mind, though, that any deleted information will be gone forever. Therefore, if you want to record your information or keep certain information forever, you may not want to delete them automatically.
To change this setting, go to Settings > App > Information.
Scroll down and tap "Keep Info" in the "Info History" section.
Select an expiration time. By default, your iPhone or iPad will save the information "forever", but you can choose to save it for "30 days" or "1 year" if you want.
As for audio messages, your device will automatically delete them after you listen to them for two minutes. This prevents them from taking up space forever, even if you run out of them completely.
However, to change this setting, you can go back to the main message screen in Settings and tap "Expire" under Audio messages.
From there, you can choose to delete them automatically after two minutes, or never delete them (unless you delete them manually).
Delete photos, videos, and attachments in bulk
You may be familiar with one way to delete messages and attachments in the Messages app, which is to long-press the message or photo, tap "More", select what you want to delete, and then tap the trash. But this is the slowest method because you have to look for all the images you want to delete in the conversation.
You can also open a message, click the contact's profile picture or avatar icon at the top, see all attachments in the conversation, and delete any media you no longer need. However, this is still not the best way to go.
Instead, as before, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage (or iPad Storage) and select the Messages app. From there, tap on "View Large Attachments". This will provide a list of every photo, video, and other attachment that the Info app has saved from all of your conversation threads, sorted by maximum size.
To delete one, simply swipe left and tap the "Delete" button.
Unfortunately, there is no "Select All" option, and there is not even a way to select multiple attachments and delete them all at once. However, this is still the best way to get rid of the largest attachment with minimal effort.
If you want to organize this list into specific media types, go back to the previous screen and check the Documents section below the View Large Attachments section. You'll see a list of different types of media.
Clicking on one will only show this kind of attachment. So, if you click on "Photos", it will only show photos. You can delete them by swiping right and tapping the "Delete" button.
If you want to save a photo or video before deleting it permanently, you can tap on it and then tap the "Share" button in the bottom left corner.
From there, you can use AirDrop or platform-agnostic wireless transfer methods like LocalSend, send it to another device, send it via email, save to a cloud storage service, etc.
Delete the entire conversation thread
If the information is taking up a lot of space, the image attachment may be the culprit, so simply deleting the text conversation may not help much. However, if you have long conversations full of messages and attachments, they may take up more space than you think. If you don't want to keep these conversations, you can delete them and free up space.
You can delete an entire conversation thread in the Messages app by swiping left and tapping the red trash can icon.
In the pop-up window that appears below, tap on the "Delete" option. This will delete all messages in the thread, as well as all media attachments.
To delete multiple conversation threads in bulk at once, tap the three-dot icon in the top right corner of the main message screen and select "Select Message" in the menu.
Select the information you want to delete and tap "Delete" in the bottom right corner of the screen.
In the pop-up window that appears at the bottom, tap "Delete" to delete these messages and free up space on your iPhone.
Enable the Messages option in iCloud
You can save more space by enabling iCloud for the Messages app. This will upload your messages and their attachments to iCloud and save only the low-quality versions on your device. From now on, any information you receive will also be automatically synced to iCloud.
Note: To get the most out of iCloud, make sure you've subscribed to iCloud+ to get access to additional storage. Once you start saving larger files, the 5 GB free space can fill up quickly.
To do this, head to Settings > [your name] >iCloud" and tap "Messages" in the "Save to iCloud" section.
If you don't see the "Info" option in the "Save to iCloud" section, tap "See All" and then select "Info in the Cloud".
In the iCloud Messages settings, tap the "Use on this iPhone" toggle to enable iCloud Messages.
summary
Text messages alone don't take up that much space. However, if you've been accumulating photos and videos you've sent and received for a few years, then you'll most likely need to review the information anyway. This, along with other tips to save space on your iPhone, will prevent your storage from running out in the future.