How to recover text messages

If you have deleted one or more messages, you can restore them in Recently Deleted.

(This feature requires your iPhone to be updated to iOS 16, you cannot restore messages from before iOS 16)

1. Open the Messages app and tap Edit in the top right corner, select: Show Recently Deleted

2. Mark the messages you want to recover and tap: Recover.

Note that, after 30-40 days the messages are automatically deleted. Once the messages are deleted, they can no longer be recovered.

If you have a local backup on your computer from when the messages were there, you can also try to restore from that backup.

You can see how to restore from a backup here:

Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup - Apple Support

You can find more information here:

Recover deleted text messages on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support