I would like to know how to save the number of a person that has sent me a text message on my iphone 4! Thank you so much
This is easier than you think, actually, and I’m kinda surprised you have to ask. Then again, I am constantly messing around with my iPhone 4, trying to figure out what this that and the other button or feature actually does, so maybe it’s just that I’m the trailblazer and forget that most people just use a device instead of seeing it as The Great Unexplored Wilderness. 🙂
Anyway, I have a huge address book so it was a bit tricky for me to find a text message from someone who wasn’t already in my contacts list. I succeeded, though, and here are all the steps I took to turn their number into a known contact…
First things first, I’m assuming you know how to get to your contacts. If you’re not sure, it’s a green icon labelled “Messages”. Tap on it.
Now, along with the text messages from your friends and compatriots, you’ll see one that’s just a number, a la:
(I’ve blurred out some of the number for my friend’s privacy. Your screen should hopefully not look quite exactly like that!)
Tap on the entry in the Messages list that has the text message or messages you want to associate with a specific Contact entry, and you’ll see the full back-and-forth discussion:
It’s the button “Add Contact” on the top right of the screen that you want to tap. Do so and it’ll ask if you want to add this mobile number to an existing contact or simply create a new person in your Contact database. If you have other info already on your iPhone, definitely consolidate it all into a single entry!
Make your choice – in this case I tap on “Create New Contact”…
The iPhone will now drop you into the middle of editing a new Contact entry, with the phone number already filled in as a mobile number:
Now it’s easy, just enter the information you know, especially including name. If you know their address, Web site URL, or their cat’s birthday, you can add it here too, as appropriate.
When you’re done, tap on “Done” on the top right and you’ll go back to the Messages app, but now instead of showing the phone number, it shows the name of the new contact, as you’d hope:
From this point forward any time you get a text message from that number, the iPhone will automatically display their name instead of the number itself.
Actually it’s not obvious or intuitive. The “add contact” button ONLY appears if you swipe down in the conversation of the text message contact you want to save/create – it does NOT appear if you go the conversation, if you edit the conversation, or if you are IN the conversation. So don’t feel bad that you couldn’t find it.
That said, THANKS!!! I found the swipe-reveal when I realized my screen had never looked like the picture you posted.
Hi Dave, I’d added contacts from texts before on my new iPhone5, but then couldn’t do it today. When I Googled for the answer, your post showed up and I read it, but still couldn’t do it! It took numerous tries before I realized I was missing the same step as some of your other commenters – not scrolling to the top of the message history to be able to see “Add Contact.”
Maybe you will consider updating this post with that one small instruction – to scroll up – as everything else is very clear and helpful.
Thank you.
Im having the same issue…I add numbers from a text but then they dont show up in my contacts.
Any ideas why would be greatly received!!
Why do these contacts not appear in the address book ap on my iphone. I can only find them if I scroll to the “search” bar on the phone. And they’re not syncing with the rest of my contacts either.
Can you help?
Very useful. I too couldn’t find the Add Contact as didn’t think to look at the top of the message history – so thanks very much for the info. Will remember that for the future now.
Thank you Dave, I usually ask my granddaughter these questions.. at least I wasn’t afraid to embrace the technology!
Thanks!
Thank you! I just got a new iphone, and am in the process of learning it. And I could not figure it out. Though I knew it had to be something really simple I was overlooking. And it was. The add contact/edit contact was at the top of the messages history.
I don’t think you can do this if the message was part of a group message. The add contact does not appear……
This was so helpful! I didn’t see the button either because I didn’t think to scroll to the top when the conversation started. It’s not so obvious to us who are technology-challenged!
OMG Dave. Forget that last question i sent to you asking why i didn’t have the “add contact” “button”… would help if i scroll ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP OF THE TEXT MESSAGE…. duh
Re: saving a contact from text message.
Dave, I have the iPhone 4 however, I do not have the Add a Contact button that is showing on your example… WHY!? where is it? do I need to do something to settings? I checked in settings but dont see anything that makes changes to the text messages that would give me that option. Thanks! Cynthia