iMessage Uses End-to-End Encryption to Send and Receive Messages. Apple's iMessage for iPhone, iPad, and Mac always uses end-to-end encryption. Only the sender and receiver of the messages can see their contents. Photos, videos, and other file attachments are also encrypted.
Attachments you send over iMessage (such as photos or videos) are encrypted so that no one but the sender and receiver(s) can access them. These encrypted attachments may be uploaded to Apple.
Recipients will who have no contact information stored for you will see your name and profile image. Those who already have information stored receive a prompt in Messages if what they receive is different than what's stored. They're given the option to update their contacts with the new name or profile image.
It saves the same image twice: once in the Messages app and once in the Photos app. If you use iMessage a lot, the incoming pictures might clutter the Photos app. You might not want sensitive images received on iMessage to appear inside the Photos app.
Change who you share your name and photo with
In the Messages app on your Mac, choose Messages > Settings, then click General. Click the Share Automatically pop-up menu, then choose one of the following: Contacts Only: Your name and photo are shared in conversations with your contacts automatically.
Yes, it's definitely possible for someone to spy on your text messages and it's certainly something you should be aware of – this is a potential way for a hacker to gain a lot of private information about you – including accessing PIN codes sent by websites used to verify your identity (such as online banking).
You can only recover messages and conversations that you deleted within the last 30 to 40 days. If you delete a message before you update to iOS 16, iPadOS 16, or later, you can't recover that message.
Deleting and recovering messages changes only your own Messages conversations, not those of your recipients. You can restore messages you deleted for up to 30 days.
You can retrieve deleted text messages on your iPhone with iOS 16 within one month of deletion. You can also use iCloud, iTunes, or Finder to recover texts if you saved backups to your computer.
That's because your iPhone pictures contain hidden information that may share where you live, work and frequently visit. It's called metadata, and is stored within photos your send over iMessage – even those you send to strangers.
The photo scanning will happen on the devices, not on the iCloud servers. Apple says it won't be looking at the pictures. Instead, it will convert the image data into code called hashes. The hashes of your photos will be compared with the hashes of known CSAM images in a database.
However, there will be no encryption if an iMessage user sends a text to an Android device. In order to make the distinction clear, Apple placed the encrypted texts in blue bubbles, while the much-maligned SMS messages between iOS and Android are locked in green bubbles.
The user's outgoing message is individually encrypted for each of the receiver's devices. The public encryption keys and signing keys of the receiving devices are retrieved from IDS.
Apple's Photos app has a built-in "Hide" function, but it doesn't prevent people who have access to your phone from snooping around. If you want to make sure your private photos and videos really stay private, we have some better tips.
All of your deleted text messages can be found in the Messages app. To find your trashed messages, open Messages and tap the Filters option in the top left of your text threads. Here you can filter your text messages by known senders, unread messages and more. However, the option we want is Recently Deleted.
Once you delete a text message or conversation on your iPhone, it gets immediately moved to a folder within the Messages app called Recently Deleted. However, the tricky part is that only iPhones running iOS 16 or later allow users to view this folder.
When you delete photos and videos, they go to your Recently Deleted album for 30 days. After 30 days, they'll be permanently deleted. If you use iCloud Photos, and delete photos and videos from one device, the photos and videos will be deleted on your other devices.
You can only delete messages from both sides if you have access to both iMessage accounts. To delete a message from both sides, you'll need to delete it on a device connected to each account. Once a message is deleted on both sides, it is permanently removed and cannot be retrieved.
Choose the Message History setting you want to use: Forever – the messages do not automatically delete themselves (this is recommended for most users) 30 Days – all messages will be deleted after they're 30 days old. 1 Year – messages will be deleted if they're older than a year.
How to See iMessage History via iCloud Backup. Ifyou have backed up your iPhone to iCloud, your iMessages will be backed up too.In case you accidentally delete some chats from iMessage, you will have the chance of recovering them from the iCloud backups you made earlier.
If you see “Use your Apple ID for iMessage,” tap it and sign in with the same Apple ID that you use on your Mac, iPad, and iPod touch. In the "You can receive iMessages to and Reply From" section, make sure that your phone number and Apple ID are selected.
Viewing Someone Else's iMessages With Their Apple ID. If you're close enough to the person you want to monitor, you might know their Apple credentials. If so, you can log into someone's iMessage without them knowing and secretly read their messages.
That's because the texts are being sent to an ID that is listed as an iMessage receive ID on both devices. See Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > You can be reached by iMessage at: Correct this so each device has a unique ID.