How to Show Contact Photos in Messages on an iPhone 11

There are some fun customizations you can make on your iPhone in unexpected places.

One of these options involves figuring out how to show contact photos next to text message conversations on the iPhone.

Initially, this might seem like a change that you would make in the Messages app, but it actually involves adding a photo to an iPhone contact. We discuss enabling this option in our tutorial below.

How to Show Contact Pictures in the iPhone Messages App

1. Open Settings.
2. Choose Messages.
3. Turn on Show Contact Photos.

Our guide continues below will additional information on how to show contact photos on iPhone messages, including pictures for these steps.

Your Messages app can occasionally provide you with some information about the messages you send. Check out our what does delivered mean on iPhone tutorial and see what that means.

The Contacts app on your iPhone allows you to add a variety of information about your contacts, including photos of those individuals. This contact information for your phone and iCloud contacts is a helpful way for you, as an iPhone user, to store a contact number, country code, address, and more.

These contact photos can be used in a couple of different locations, such as a phone call from that person, as well as the Messages app on your iPhone.

But it’s possible that you have some photos stored for your contacts but you don’t have text messages showing those pictures next to your conversations.

Fortunately, it only requires a couple of steps for you to start using your contact photos in the Messages app. Our guide below will show you how to show contact photos in messages on an iPhone.

Find the answer to what does delivered mean on iPhone if that notification in messages has been something you were curious about.

How to Display Contact Photos Next to Names on an iPhone 11 (Guide with Pictures)

The steps in this article were performed on an iPhone 11 in iOS 14.3. These steps will also work for other iPhones and iPads, include older ones with Home buttons like the iPhone 7. The iPod Touch has a similar option as well.

Step 1: Open the Settings app.

Step 2: Scroll down and select the Messages option.

Step 3: Tap the button to the right of Show Contact Photos to enable it.

Your contact pictures will show in the Messages app when there is green shading around the button, as there is in the image below. You can open the Messages app where you should see a contact profile picture or profile icon next to each conversation.

Now that you know how to show contact photos next to names in the iPhone Messages app you can add some additional customization to your iPhone contacts by using actual pictures instead of the default gray profile circle.

Additional Information

• The Settings Contacts menu has some additional options you might wish to adjust. This includes the sort and display order of contact names, as well as short name and default account options.
• If enabling this option doesn’t cause the contact photos to appear, then you might want to try restarting your iPhone. You can force restart the device if you press and hold the Power button and the volume up button. You should then see an option to slide to power off. After the device shuts down you can then hold down the Power button, then you will see a white Apple logo indicating that the phone is restarting.
• The iPhone can also be restarted from the Settings General menu, by selecting Shut Down at the bottom of the menu.
• You can open the Phone app and select the Contacts tab to view your device contacts. You can then select a contact and choose Edit to add information. The photos option is accessible by tapping the Add Photo button at the top of the contact page.
• You can hide alerts for certain message conversations by swiping to the left on that conversation, then tapping the bell icon.

You can visit Apple’s contact support site for additional information.