How to Forward a Text Message on iPhone

To forward a text message on iPhone, open Messages, touch and hold the message, tap More, select the messages you want, then tap the Share button (called the Forward button on iOS 26 and earlier), enter who gets it and tap Send. For one text, Apple’s own way is the quickest. If you forward the same kind of text every day, a Shortcuts automation can do it for you.

What you need: your iPhone and the Messages app. The steps follow Apple’s guide Forward and share messages on iPhone for iOS 27, checked October 13, 2026. iOS 26 and iOS 18 use the same steps, with a Forward button in place of Share.

Which way should you use?

Forward by hand for the odd text, and automate the texts you forward again and again.

iPhone SMS forwarding compares all three ways to forward iPhone texts.

How do you forward one text message?

Touch and hold the message, tap More, then tap the Share button (Forward on iOS 26) and choose who gets it. Step by step, following Apple’s guide for iOS 27:

1. Open the conversation in Messages.
2. Touch and hold the message bubble, then tap More.
3. Select the messages to forward, then tap the Share button. On iOS 26 it’s called the Forward button.
4. Enter recipients, then tap the Send button. You can type a phone number, a contact’s name or an Apple Account.

How do you forward several messages at once?

Use the same steps, and in step 3 tap every message you want before you tap the Share button (Forward on iOS 26). You select messages inside one conversation, so texts from different conversations take one forward each.

Can you forward a whole conversation?

Not in one tap: Messages forwards the messages you select, and Apple’s guide has no step for a whole conversation. For a short one, select every message. To show it as it looks, bubbles and timestamps included, Apple suggests a screenshot instead:

1. Scroll to the part you want to share.
2. Take a screenshot. Quickly press and release the side button and the volume up button at the same time. On an iPhone with a Home button, press the side button and the Home button.
3. Send it. If a thumbnail appears in the corner, tap it, then tap the Share button and choose a sharing option.

For a long conversation, take one screenshot for each screenful.

How do you forward a text to email?

Copy the text into a new email in Mail. Messages sends to a phone number, contact or Apple Account, so for an inbox, Mail does the sending:

1. Copy the text. Touch and hold the message, tap Select, select the text you want, then tap Copy.
2. Start an email. Open Mail and tap the Compose button.
3. Add the address. Tap the To field and type the address.
4. Paste and send. Tap in the email and paste the text: tap Paste, or pinch open with three fingers. Then tap the Send button.

To get matching texts in an inbox without copying each one, see forwarding iPhone texts to email.

How do you forward a text to a PC?

Email it to yourself with the steps above, then open the email on the PC. Our Windows post covers getting iPhone texts onto a PC.

A Mac or iPad doesn’t need a forward: on the iPhone, open Settings, then Apps, then Messages, then Text Message Forwarding, and one on the same Apple Account can send and receive your texts.

What forwarding by hand can’t do

• It doesn’t keep going. You send each forward yourself, so a code that arrives at 3 a.m. waits for you.
• It doesn’t look like the original. For the bubbles and timestamps, send a screenshot.
• It comes from you. The forward arrives from your own number or Apple Account, not the original sender’s, so say who wrote it if that matters.

What if you forward texts every day?

Let a Shortcuts automation do it. A Message automation runs whenever a new text message containing your chosen word arrives, and Fwrd passes it on to any of eight destinations. It suits you when you want texts in a chat app, or in several places at once, with no Fwrd account to sign up for:

• No account, and no Fwrd servers. Texts go straight from your iPhone to the places you pick, and the forwarding history stays on the iPhone.
• Eight destinations. Email, another phone or iMessage, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, and your own webhook, which also works with Zapier, Make and n8n.
• Filters. Every destination can keep only texts with your words, ones that look like a verification code, or ones at certain hours. Slack, Discord, Telegram, Teams and webhooks use it straight away; email, another phone and WhatsApp need their send action inside an If first.
• Who sent it, if you want it. Turn on Include Who Sent It in Fwrd’s Settings and choose Sender on Fwrd’s action, and each forward starts with a From: line.

Setting it up takes three steps: add a destination in Fwrd, create a Message automation in Shortcuts with a word your texts share, and add Fwrd’s action to it. For email, another phone or WhatsApp, Apple’s or WhatsApp’s own send action goes after Fwrd’s. Can an iPhone automatically forward texts? walks through it.

The automation guide shows every step on iOS 26 and 27. Only new texts that match are forwarded, the iPhone has to stay on and online, and after a restart Fwrd waits until it’s unlocked once.