How to Turn On Messages in iCloud on iPhone in iOS 11.4

With the release of iOS 11.4 yesterday, Messages in iCloud finally was released, nearly one year after it was first announced at WWDC 2017.

The feature allows users to store their messages within iCloud, which can free up space on your local device. It also means when you delete a message from your iPhone or iPad, it will also be deleted from other devices running iOS 11.4 and the feature enabled.

Here’s the description according to Apple:

Messages in iCloud are updated automatically, so you always have the same view everywhere you use iMessage. When you delete a message, photo, or conversation on one device, it’s removed from all of your devices. And since all of your attachments are stored in iCloud, you can save space on your device.

How to Turn On Messages in iCloud

1. Go to Settings > Tap [your name] > iCloud

2. Under the section ‘Apps Using iCloud’, toggle on Messages

IMG 3840 2

That’s it. Once you’ve turned this on, you’ll see a pop-up notification in Messages which will say “The Keep Messages setting has been reset to Forever because a device was added to Messages in iCloud.”

IMG 3841 2

Within the Messages app, you’ll also see a progress bar showing that your messages are “Uploading to iCloud”. Your device needs to be plugged in and connected to Wi-Fi for this to happen:

IMG 3843 2

When you attempt to delete a message once this feature is enabled, you’ll see a pop-up message that reads “Would you like to delete this conversation? This conversation will be deleted from all of your devices.”

After enabling Messages in iCloud, it used up 2.2GB of our iCloud storage and our local storage saw about 425MB of space freed up (it could have been more depending on when we tracked the numbers).

How to enable Messages in iCloud on Mac? As of writing, it’s not possible yet because macOS 10.13.5 is not available yet, as it’s still in beta. Once that is out, all you have to do is go to Preferences in Messages on your Mac, then tick off the box to “Enable Messages in iCloud”.

Did you enable Messages in iCloud in iOS 11.4?

P.S. - Like our news? Support the site with a coffee/beer. Or shop with our Amazon link. We use affiliate links when possible--thank you for supporting independent media.