How to Share a Text Message on the iPhone

Forward text messages, photos, and videos to others on an iOS device

by Sam Costello
Sam Costello has been writing about tech since 2000. His writing has appeared in publications such as CNN.com, PC World, InfoWord, and many others.
Updated December 09, 2019

The Messages app that comes installed on every iPhone and iPad has a feature that can be used to forward text messages using the Share option. You can also use this feature to print text messages (a version of it is used to delete text messages, too).

Instructions in this article apply to all currently supported versions of iOS.

How to Forward a Text Message on iOS 7 and Later

To forward a text message in the version of Messages that comes with iPhones and iPads running iOS 7 and later:

  1. Tap Messages.

  2. Select the conversation that includes the message you want to forward.

  3. Tap and hold the message you want to forward. A menu appears at the bottom of the screen that offers several choices including Copy, Save, and More (in iOS 10, reaction options appear above the text message).

  4. Tap More.

    Target message, tap and hold on message, More button on iOS

  5. The message you selected has a blue checkmark next to it, indicating that it's ready to be forwarded. Tap other empty circles to forward those messages at the same time.

  6. Tap Share (the curved arrow). A new text message screen appears with the message or messages you're forwarding copied in the text area. 

  7. In the To field, type the name or phone number of the person you want to forward the message to. Include more than one person to send a group message.

    To access your contacts, tap the + on the right side of the To field and browse for the recipient to whom you want to forward the message.

    Three iOS screens showing More and Share buttons, and To field when forwarding an iMessage

  8. Tap Send.

You're not limited to forwarding text from messages. If someone texts you a photo or video, you can forward that, too. Follow the steps above and select the photo or video.

If the messages won't forward, learn how to fix an iPhone that won't send text messages.