How to save audio messages on iPhone

Save iPhone voice messages and back them up to your computer

Audio messages let you chat hands-free by sending voice recordings in iMessages. Instead of typing or reading, you can record and listen, for a convenient and personal touch.

In this article, we'll take a deep dive into audio messages on iPhone. We'll cover how to send them, how to save them to your iPhone, and how to back them up to your computer.

There are 2 ways to secure your audio messages on your iOS devices: saving to Voice Memos, and keeping them in the Messages app.

Saving audio messages to the Voice Memos app

If you are using iOS 16 or later, you can save audio messages to the Voice Memos app!

To save a voice message on iPhone, tap and hold it, then choose "Save to Voice Memos".

How to find saved voice messages on iPhone

1. Swipe down on your iPhone screen and search for "Voice Memos".
2. Tap the app to launch it.
3. You'll see your saved voice messages listed in the "All Recordings" section of the app.

Keeping audio messages in the Messages app

Ever sent an audio message, only to check back later and wonder, "Where did it go?" By default, the iPhone Messages app automatically deletes audio messages after just 2 minutes.

Once they're gone, they're gone - but you can save the audio messages to keep them stored on your device. It's also wise to save your iPhone audio messages to your PC or Mac for safekeeping.

To keep a single audio message, tap "Keep" underneath an audio message to prevent it from being automatically removed.

To keep all your sent and received audio messages, you can prevent your iPhone from deleting them. This will also mean that you won't need to manually choose to "Keep" each message.

Here's how to automatically save voice messages on iPhone:

1. Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Scroll down and tap "Apps" > "Messages".
3. Under "AUDIO MESSAGES", tap "Expire".
4. Choose "Never".

This will ensure that your sent/received audio messages are never automatically removed from your device.

Saving voice messages to your iPhone prevents automatic deletion, but they can take up significant storage. To save space, you can back up the voice messages to your computer, and then remove them from your iPhone.

TouchCopy is a superb program which allows you to back up any iPhone files to your PC or Mac. You can save Messages, Contacts, Photos, Voice Memos, Voicemails and more!

Let's see how to view iPhone/iPad messages on your computer, and how to copy them - including attachments like Audio Messages.

1. Download and install TouchCopy on your PC or Mac.
2. Open TouchCopy and connect your iPhone/iPad to your computer using your USB cable.
3. Click Messages and select the conversations containing your desired audio messages.
   • Click the Play button on an audio message to listen to it in TouchCopy for Mac.
4. Click "Save as HTML" (PC) or "HTML" (Mac) to export selected conversations to your computer.
5. Choose a folder to save your files and click "OK". TouchCopy will save your conversation as an HTML file, which you can open in your default web browser.
6. A separate .caf file is saved for each audio message in the conversation. These files can be played using QuickTime or the VLC media player.

Find out more about TouchCopy Download TouchCopy now

If you have a Mac, you'll probably already know that you can use iMessages directly on your computer.

With iMessage sync, you can access your iPhone or iPad conversations right from your Mac. This is especially useful for listening to and saving audio messages to your Mac's hard drive. Just make sure you set up iMessages on your Mac with the same Apple ID that you use for your iPhone/iPad.

How to save audio messages to your Mac...

1. Open the Messages app on your Mac.
2. Select the conversation containing your desired audio message.
3. Right-click the audio message and click "Copy".
4. Launch Finder and open the location on your Mac where you would like to save the file.
5. Right-click inside the folder and choose "Paste item".

Listening back to your saved audio messages on your Mac is easy. The messages will be saved as .caf or .amr files which Macs support by default. So you can simply right-click such a file, then "Open With" QuickTime Player.

So that's how to save them, but you may also wonder how to record and send audio messages from your iPhone. Sending audio messages on iPhone is slightly different on each version of iOS.

How to send a voice message on iPhone [iOS 17 and higher]

1. Open the Messages app on your iPhone.
2. Select a conversation and tap the "+" icon at the bottom of your screen.
3. Choose "Audio" to start recording an audio message.
4. Tap "Stop" to stop recording.
5. Review and send your voice message.
   • Tap the "play" icon to preview your message.
   • Tap the "x" icon in your message box to cancel and delete the recording.
   • Or tap the upward pointing arrow in your message box to send your audio message.

We hope this guide helped you take control of your audio messages!

Remember that they will be automatically deleted from your devices after 2 minutes unless you choose to keep them.

To back up your audio messages to your computer, you can use Messages on Mac or TouchCopy for Windows PC or Mac!