If you are a regular Facebook user and are quite active on this website, you probably use the native Messenger application to chat with your family members and friends whenever you can. And if your frequent activity on this app has led to a large volume of chat content to pile up, you might have decided to archive some of your messages, and keep them in a separate yet safe space without deleting them.
And while this is quite a helpful feature, it can also be a bit difficult trying to locate any messages you previously archived, as it’s not as straightforward of a process as one would hope. To that end, here is a quick guide for locating archived messages that might help:
Finding old messages on a computer
If you are currently using your computer, you can locate any archived messages on Facebook by following the simple steps below:
- Load the Facebook website in your preferred browser, and log in if necessary.
- Press the Messages icon (bubble with a squiggly line) located in the top-right part of the display.
- Here, select the ‘See All in Messenger’ option.
- On the following page, press Settings (gear icon) in the top-left part of the display.
- Choose the ‘Hidden Chats’ option.
- You should now see all the archived messages that you have in the banner to the left.
- If you want, you could also look for a specific word or phrase in a specific chat just by using the ‘Search in Conversation’ feature.
Finding old messages on a mobile device
In case you are currently using the Messenger app on your smartphone or tablet, however, you could locate your previously archived messages by following these steps:
- Load the Messenger app, and log in if necessary.
- Press the search box located at the beginning of the display. Here, you will have to enter the name of the specific person whose messages you previously archived.
- Press the person’s name when they show up, and you will have the ability to see all messages that you’ve previously exchanged with each other, along with any archived ones.
- Keep in mind that you will have to scroll up for quite a while in order to locate any older messages.
- If you want, you could also look for a specific word or phrase in a specific chat just by using the ‘Search in Conversation’ feature.
Note: You simply can’t access all of your archived messages at once when you’re using the Messenger app on your mobile device. You will have to do so through the Facebook website on your computer.
And that’s it! No matter which type of device you’re currently using, you can now quickly and easily access any of your old or achieved messages, just by following the handy guide above.
