Send & receive text messages in Messages

You can send and receive text messages with friends and contacts on Messages.

Important: Some of these steps only work on Android 6.0 and up. Learn how to check your Android version.

Start a conversation

1. Open the Messages app . 
2. Tap Compose .
3. In "To," enter the names, phone numbers, or email addresses that you'd like to message. You can also pick from your top contacts or your whole contact list.

Send a message

1. Tap the message box.
2. Enter your message. If you'd like to save it as a draft and go back, tap Back .
3. When you’re done, tap Send . 

Tip: Learn how to share contacts in your messages.

Forward a message

After you open a conversation, you can send it to a new contact at any time.

1. Open the Messages app .
2. Open a chat.
3. Tap and hold a message. 
4. Tap More  Forward.
5. Choose your contact.
6. Tap Send .

Read text messages

To read a message that you just got, swipe down from the top of your screen and tap New Message .

You can also open any conversation in Messages to read it again.

• Mark all messages as read: Tap More  Mark all as read.
• Play a video or recording: Tap a conversation. Next to the video or recording, tap Play .
• Call someone: Tap a conversation. In the top-right, tap Call .
• Read archived messages: From your list of conversations, tap More   Archived. 

Tip: Learn how to change your notification settings.