What to Know
- When you save an audio message, it is stored in your Voice Memos app.
- Your Voice Memos app may be automatically sorted into a Utilities folder.
- If you set your audio messages to never expire, you can always access them in your Messages app.
Where do you find saved voice messages on the iPhone? Whether you're looking to preserve your adorable niece's voice telling you about her day at preschool or save directions on how to complete a task correctly without having to ask someone again and again, you'll want to know where to find the audio messages you saved. Turns out, they're very easy to find!
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Where Do Saved Audio Messages Go?
If someone sent you an audio message you want to save, it turns out it's pretty easy to get to them once they're saved to your device. Where do you find saved voice memos? Well, audio messages are saved to your Voice Memos app and will appear in a list when you open that app. You do, however, need to save them for them to appear here, or they'll stay in your Messages app and expire when they're set to.
How to Save an Audio Message to the Voice Memos App
- Open your Messages app and tap the play button next to the audio message you want to save. If the message is one you received instead of one you sent, you'll have to listen to the whole thing before you are able to save it.
![iphone messages app displaying a conversation with a voice message. there is a red box around the play button]()
- After the message finishes playing, you'll briefly see a message that says, Expires in 2m.
![iphone messages app displaying a conversation with a voice message. there is a red arrow pointing at a message underneath the audio which reads "Expires in 2m"]()
- This will disappear, and Keep will take its place. Tap Keep.
![iphone messages app displaying a conversation with a voice message. there is a red arrow pointing at a message underneath the audio which reads "Keep"]()
- Long press on the voice message you'd like to save.
![iphone messages app displaying a conversation with a voice message. there is a red box around the entire message, indicating for the user to tap and hold the message]()
- Tap Save to Voice Memos. Now, where do you find saved voice memos?
![iphone messages app displaying an audio message with a menu of additional options open. There is a red box around the option, "Save to voice memos"]()
- Go to your Home screen and open the Voice Memos app. Your iPhone may have automatically sorted it into a Utilities folder, so if you don't see it, check there. You can also search your App Library.
![tap voice memo where do voice messages save on iphone]()
- Your most recently saved audio message will appear at the top of the list.
![iphone voice memos app displaying a list of recordings with a red box around the most recently saved recording, "Audio message from Elisabeth Garry"]()
Note: When you Keep a message, the other person will be able to see that you saved it.
And there you have it! Now you know how to save audio messages and where voice notes are saved so that you can access them at any time. However, if you want to keep your audio messages in your Messages app, you can set them to never expire.
How to Keep an Audio Message in Your Messages App
Audio messages automatically expire after two minutes in your Messages app, so if you don't save them to your Voice Memos app, they'll be gone forever. You can change this setting, though, and keep your audio messages in your Messages app. Here's how:
- In your Settings app, tap Messages.
![tap messages where do saved voice messages go on iphone]()
- Scroll down, and under Audio Messages, tap Expire.
![tap expire where do voice memos save on iphone]()
- Select Never.
![tap never where do voice messages save on iphone]()
This will make it so audio messages stay in your messages app, and you can always access them there. However, audio messages can take up a lot of storage, so unless there's a specific reason you want to be able to access all audio messages through your Messages app, you might be better off saving the ones you want to keep to your Voice Memos app and letting the others expire. Next, find out how to fix audio messages when they're not working.
FAQ
- Do voice messages disappear before being read? No, voice messages will stay in the Messages app until they have been listened to all the way through. After that, they will expire two minutes later, unless you have enabled the Never option for expiring messages.
- How to save voicemails on iPhone? You can save voicemails by sharing them to the Voice Memos or Notes apps. Check out our article on how to save voicemails for more details.
- How to send voice messages on iPhone? You can send voice messages in the Messages app. To the left of the text field, simply tap the plus icon, and then select Audio. It will begin recording immediately.
- Why is my audio message not transcribing? As of iOS 17, audio messages are automatically transcribed. If you are having trouble with this feature, check out our article on how to fix iMessage audio transcription not working.
