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How to Save an Entire Text Conversation on iPhone

Messages has no way to save a whole conversation in one go. Kept Texts saves it as one PDF on your iPhone: pick the chat through its shortcut and every text comes over with its exact words and time.

Steps

  1. Open Kept Texts, tap New Record, then Messages › Choose a Chat. Pick the conversation and allow it: Apple's Shortcuts app hands over every text with its exact words and time. Kept Texts keeps only the chat you picked. The first time, it asks you to add its shortcut, which takes one tap. Set Texts From to Any Time to get all of it.
  2. Check anything Kept Texts marked, then preview the whole PDF for free.
  3. Save, print or share it with a pass. Print sends it straight to a printer.

Why a PDF

A PDF opens on any phone or computer, prints cleanly, and doesn't depend on one phone or one account. Keep it in Files, email it to yourself, or print it. It's a copy to keep: it doesn't move your texts to another phone.

Make sure Messages keeps them

In Settings › Apps › Messages, check that Keep Messages is set to Forever. Otherwise your iPhone deletes older texts after 30 days or a year.

Questions

How long does a long conversation take?

A month of texts took under a minute in testing. Years of texts take longer, and Kept Texts opens the record when it's done.

Can I save a WhatsApp chat the same way?

Yes, from WhatsApp's own Export Chat file. See the WhatsApp guide.

Kept Texts is coming soon to the App Store, for iPhone with iOS 26 or later. It's free to make, check and preview your whole PDF. A pass to save, print and share costs $9.99 for 30 days or $29.99 for a year, and never renews.

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Updated November 13, 2026.