iOS 8: Setting Messages to Expire

Under iOS 8, we have specific control over how long our messages—no matter if they’re text, audio, or video—last on our devices before they get deleted automatically. Whether this is a big deal to you will depend on how media-heavy your conversations tend to be and how much storage your iOS gadget has. If you’re curious, you can check to see how much space your messages are taking up within Settings> General> Usage> Storage> Manage Storage (whew!).

I…um…I think I may have a problem. 

If you’re a constant texter as I apparently am, you can visit Settings> Messages to adjust how long yours are kept. 

With text-based messages, your choices are to keep them for 30 days, a year, or forever; for audio and video, you can only pick between having them expire after two minutes or never expiring.

Of course, if you’ve chosen to let those types of media expire, you can still save the ones you get individually. After you’ve played a video or audio clip, just touch the “Keep” button that’ll appear.

And that’s all there is to it—now you can save or remove those space-sucking Messages as you desire! Writing this article has taught me that I may have to attend some sort of a 12-step program for serial texters, though, so there’s no hope for my own poor overworked iPhone.