Mobile phone users across the globe send over 18 billion text messages every day. A lot of those messages are casual conversations but a percentage of them are important enough that losing them would be a problem.
If you want to be sure you don’t lose that information, you need to save copies of important texts. Let’s look at how to archive text messages for safekeeping.
How to Archive Text Messages on the iPhone
Apple is well-known for its stance on privacy and security. They lock the iPhone down pretty tight so you only have a few options for archiving messages.
Screenshots
The simplest way to archive your text messages on the iPhone is to take screenshots of any important conversations. If you only need to archive a few messages, this works fine but it’s too time- and labor-intensive for longer threads.
iCloud or iTunes Backup
When you back up your iPhone to either iCloud or iTunes, your text messages are part of that backup. If you lose them, you can restore the backup to get everything back.
The catch here is that it’s all or nothing. You can’t restore individual messages, only everything that was on the phone when you backed it up.
SMS Archive Software
The best option for archiving individual messages on the iPhone is to use an archival tool like AnyTrans. These apps let you access the texts on your iPhone from a Mac or Windows PC. Once you import them, you can save or print them to keep an archive copy.
Archiving Text Messages on Android
Android smartphones are a little less locked down than iPhones. They also offer more built-in options for archiving your text messages.
Archive and Restore Function in Messages
The easiest way to archive text on Android is with the built-in Archive and Restore function in the Messages app. This tool lets you archive messages for safekeeping while removing them from your list of texts.
If you need to recover those messages for some reason, the restore function brings them back into the app.
SMS Backup and Restore
Android also offers an SMS backup and restore feature. This is similar to iCloud backup on the iPhone, however — it’s all or nothing.
You can’t restore individual messages, only all the messages that were on your phone when you backed it up.
Mobile Archiver Applications
If you work in an industry like healthcare or finance mobile compliance might not only be important, it might be mandatory. Regulatory requirements like HIPAA compliance could force you to store archived copies of messages for a certain amount of time.
If that’s the case, apps like TeleMessage Mobile Archiver and iPlum might be your best choice on Android. They’re designed for large organizations with many users so the IT department can manage it all from a central data store.
Don’t Take Chances With Valuable Messages
Texting has replaced other forms of communication for many people. As a result, there are some extremely valuable texts on a lot of their phones.
Knowing how to archive text messages is a valuable skill for anyone using a smartphone. Learning one or more of the methods we covered here will help keep your messages safe.
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