You leave a trail when you send and receive text messages on your iPhone. And most of the time that’s not a problem. You’ll probably want those messages to be saved and recorded for future reference when you need them – but there may be times when you’d like your conversations to be a little more…private.
That’s one reason why apps like Snapchat and signal are so popular. However, you don’t need to download any third-party app to have more secret conversations on your iPhone. Instead, you can use a built-in Apple app to send temporary, hidden messages to your friends and family — and they’ve been around ever since iOS 10.
The Notes app lets you collaborate with others on notes, whether they’re shopping lists or collections of dad jokes. Anyone who is part of a collaborative note can edit it in real time – and that’s what you can use to have hidden conversations. You can have an incredibly long, face-to-face conversation without any solid proof that it ever existed.
To learn how to turn a note into a hidden conversation on iOS, here’s what you need to know. And while you’re at it, check them out hidden trackpad that lives inside your iOS keyboard and this 10 Hidden iOS 16 Features You Must Know.
First, create a note in the Notes app
On your iPhone, launch the Notes app and tap Compose Button at bottom right to create a new note. Next, type something in the note to keep it, or it will be automatically deleted when you leave the note. You can also just go into an existing note, but it’s better to start over with a new one.
First, create a new note or switch to an existing one.
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Adjust your note’s sharing options to add collaborators
Once your note is created and ready to use, you can start adding someone else as a collaborator, which means they can read and edit anything in the note. Tap to start More button at the top right and then press share note.
Now tap share options and make sure that Can make changes Option is selected under Permission. You should also turn off Anyone can add people if you want to be the only person who can add collaborators to your note. Return to the last page when you are finished configuring these settings.
Second, manage what your employees can do.
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Add friends you want to include and share the link
Next, choose a method for sharing the note: you can send it via SMS, email, social media, and more. If you swipe on the sharing options, you can also select copy linkwhich copies the note link to your clipboard and allows you to paste it anywhere.
For this example I choose the copy link Ability to share the note.
At the top of the Copy link page, enter the email address or phone number of the person who needs to access the note. You can also tap Add to icon to browse your contacts. Adding a contact to the note is required – if you share the link without adding a contact, the other person won’t be able to see or edit the note, even with the link.
strike last Copy shortcut to copy the note link to your clipboard and share it with your collaborator.
Next, add your collaborator(s).
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Send secret messages with Notes
The other person on the receiving end must now open the note link and accept the invitation. If they agree, they’ll be taken to the Notes app and the shared note they just created.
To communicate, just type something in the note that the other person can see in real time, without having to click send. You will also receive a notification whenever the note is modified.
A corresponding color is shown for each person in the note (just for a moment), so everyone else knows who typed what. You can also swipe right from the middle of the note to see the name of the message’s author, along with a timestamp of when the message was composed and any corresponding colors.
Now you can secretly communicate with your friends or family.
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You can also tap share note button (with the tick icon), go to Manage shared note and then switch on Mark all changes. This way, all messages remain permanently highlighted in their appropriate color, making the conversation easier to read.
And if you want to keep your communication more low-key, delete your message or the other person’s message to remove it from the note. That way, your conversation is more like Snapchat, with short-lived or short-lived messages that outsiders can’t see when sniffing through your notes. You can do this with any text in the notes, photos, videos, links, drawings, or other attachments that you add to the note.
Permanently delete your secret chat
Not all secret conversations can go on forever, and that’s why now is the time to end them.
If you’re the owner of the note and want to keep the note intact for everyone but prevent them from editing it, you can easily do that. Tap that in the top right Show Participants press and then press Manage shared note. To remove a participant, you can either swipe left on their name and then press Removed or you can tap their name and then tap remove access.
To end the note conversation, remove all collaborators or stop sharing the note.
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You can also tap stop sharing Option that not only removes attendees from the note, but also deletes the note from all their devices.
If you are not the owner of the note, you can simply delete the note from the Notes application.
