Kept Texts / Guides

How to Save Text Messages From Someone Who Died

Short answer

You can keep your whole conversation with them as a PDF, with every text, date and time, so it doesn't depend on one phone or one account. Kept Texts makes it on your iPhone without uploading anything. Print it, and share a copy to iCloud Drive or email it to yourself, so it's safe even if the app is deleted.

First, keep the texts safe

  • Don't delete the conversation.
  • In Settings › Apps › Messages, set Keep Messages to Forever, so older texts aren't removed after 30 days or a year.
  • Save the photos and videos they sent to Photos too: the PDF marks where each one was, but doesn't print them.

Make the PDF

  1. Open Kept Texts and tap Make a Record, then Messages. The first time, tap Add Kept's Shortcut and add it in Apple's Shortcuts app; you only do this once. Then tap Choose a Chat, pick the conversation in Shortcuts, and choose Always Allow when Apple asks (a few times, the first run). Shortcuts hands over every text with its exact words and time, and Kept Texts keeps only the chat you picked. Set Texts From to Any Time.
  2. Choose Keeping Someone's Texts as what it's for. The cover is gentler than one for court.
  3. Preview it for free, then save or print it with a pass.

Printing it

Print sends it straight to a printer, or take the PDF to a print shop to have it bound. It's real text, so it stays sharp at any size.

Questions

Can I save years of texts?

You can ask for all of it: set Texts From to Any Time, and Kept Texts' shortcut hands over every text of that conversation that's still on your iPhone. Years of texts take longer to come over than a month's.

Is anything uploaded?

No. Kept Texts has no account. Your texts and the PDF stay on your iPhone unless you share them.

See what you'll get

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.

See a sample PDFComing soon to the App Store

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Updated November 13, 2026.