How to Pin Conversations to the Top of the Messages App on iPhone

If you use your iPhone for all your daily communications, your Messages app can quickly become a chaotic mess. Between group chats with your family, daily texts with your significant other, and an endless barrage of automated shipping notifications and two-factor authentication codes, the conversations you actually care about constantly get pushed down the list.

Instead of endlessly scrolling to find your best friend’s text thread, you can permanently anchor your most important conversations to the very top of the screen. Apple allows you to “pin” up to nine conversation threads, transforming them into large, easily tappable profile circles that never move, regardless of who texted you last.

This guide explains how to pin and unpin conversations in the iPhone Messages app.

How to Pin a Conversation

There are two quick ways to pin a conversation directly from your main Messages inbox.

Method 1: The Long Press

1. Open the Messages app.
2. Scroll through your inbox until you find the person or group chat you want to pin.
3. Press and hold your finger on their name/conversation thread until a pop-up menu appears.
4. Tap Pin at the top of the menu.

Method 2: The Swipe

1. Open the Messages app.
2. Find the conversation you want to pin.
3. Swipe right on the conversation thread (drag your finger from the left edge toward the right edge of the screen).
4. A yellow box with a white pushpin icon will appear. Keep swiping all the way to the right edge of the screen, or simply tap the yellow pushpin icon.

The conversation will immediately disappear from your chronological list and reappear as a large circular icon pinned to the very top of your screen.

How to Edit Your Pinned Layout

Once you have pinned multiple people (up to nine), you might want to organize them visually.

1. Tap Edit in the top left corner of the main Messages screen.
2. Select Edit Pins from the drop-down menu.
3. The pinned circles at the top of your screen will begin to jiggle.
4. Click and hold any pinned circle to drag and drop it into a different position, rearranging the order.
5. To unpin someone, tap the grey Minus (-) icon on their circle. They will drop back down into your standard chronological inbox.
6. Tap Done in the top left corner when you are finished.

Pro tip: When you have a group chat pinned, the circular icon will dynamically shift to show the profile pictures of the three most recent people who sent a message to the group.