I’ve been wishing for this feature to be added to the Messages app for some time now, and it just occurred to me that it would be interesting to see how many others here have ever felt the same. Yes, I’ve make the suggestion on Apple’s Feedback pages, and hopefully I’m not the only one. I’m curious what this group of savvy Mac/iPhone/iPad users thinks of the idea.
To be clear, the idea stems from the frequent experience I have where a text comes in, I read it, and then it promptly gets pushed down the list of recent messages, and I forget to reply. I know, if I’m not able to reply right then, I should at least set a reminder to reply or something, but all too often, I just don’t have time at that moment to do anything about that particular message, and it shortly falls off my radar. How nice would it be to have the same option we have in Mail, to simply swipe left and mark the message as unread?!?
I agree completely, and I’ll take it a step further (or sideways). I would like to be able to delete messages in a conversation without deleting everything in the conversation.
You can do that now! In a conversation, press-and-hold on a message, and tap “More…” That will create an column of checkboxes (checkcircles?) that you can use to delete as many individual messages as you like!
Pretty sure you can delete single messages. Right click on the computer and hold down in iOS.
I’d also love to be able to mark messages unread or flag them. Last year I texted Happy Birthday to a friend. He replied the next day. Somehow I opened it by mistake but was away for the day. Because I can have a number of text conversations a day, it quickly fell off my screen. A month later I found out he was terminal with only days to live. I managed to see him just before he passed, but I still feel like an ass because his last text to me said “Thanks for the birthday wishes! I have to catch you up on some things going on with me.” Sure would have been nice to have one last conversation with him, as he was not talking much by the time I saw him
Nevermind I sometimes forget a client message that I read and needed to act on - I always try to put it in Reminders or email myself a screenshot. But my friends message is the most painful one I’ve dealt with that I wouldn’t have missed if I’d been able to mark it as unread.
I’d like that option too. But right now my Message app is so screwed up it is almost useless. I get messages fine yet 99% of the time I try to respond and it is never sent - even messages to family. Then there are the rare times it will go through. No indication as to why much less when. It is worrisome as I need the message app to work for both personal and medical reasons. I’ve tried everything I think.
The “mark as unread” would be a nice addition, especially if I can get the dumb thing to work right ;-(
Thank you, @jiclark and @jbr. Perhaps I failed to find this for the same reason that it failed to work when I first tested it after reading your messages. I right-clicked and inadvertently selected a word, which gave a different contextual menu. Then I right-clicked just above the message, and got a different contextual menu, but still no option to delete a message. Then I right-clicked just after the message text, and got a menu that included the Delete… command.
And thank you, @dianed143, for the same tips. I’m sorry to hear about your loss and the part this missing feature played.
I’m glad to know that I’m not alone in this wish, and that we could help Will learn how to delete individual messages in a thread! Now I have to ask, have you all made the effort to post this feature request on:
@jiclark just did that with request for Mark as Unread. Thanks for the link. Interesting that they would not let me select the latest version of Messages I am using - wouldn’t go past version 9 on the drop down list. Must have awakened them I guess. . .
Totally agree about ‘Mark as Unread’. Have filed a feature request as suggested. I am experiencing two other problems with Messages for Mac:
Text messages received frequently don’t arrive until I quit the app and restart it. The icon shows an unread message but you can’t see it.
This may help dougeddy: after doing a clean install on my MacBook Pro a couple of operating systems ago, my Messages lost the ability to send messages to a number without an international area code. I have tried everything to get this functionality back without success. I have been slowly working through my address book adding +44 to the front of every number (I am in the UK). This problem does not exist on my iMac. Any ideas on how to fix it?
I believe this can essentially be accomplished in iOS by pressing on the message and then tapping on More… in the bottom pop-up. Next tap on the Forward arrow in the bottom right corner of the screen. Enter your own name/number in the To: field and tap the Send arrow in the bottom right corner of the new message. You’ll receive a new, unread message from yourself. I admit it’s not as clean and easy as it would be if Apple would build in a Mark as Unread option…
Thanks George! I’ve thought of that, of course, and it is one ‘solution’, but I’d still much prefer a swipe to mark as unread. That would be much more efficient, imho.
