How to hide contact photos from the Messages app on iPhone or iPad

Don’t like seeing the photo or the initials of your contacts in the Messages app on iPhone and iPad? This functionality can be toggled on or off, and in this tutorial, we’ll show you how to do just that.

iPhone Messages app with and without profile pictures

Apple’s Messages app displays contact photos for each of your conversations by default. Even if you don’t have a photo set up with some contacts, Messages will display a generic placeholder image or a gray circle with their first and last name initials, so you have something to look at.

When enabled, contact photos will show up not only at the left side of contact names while inside of the message thread view, as illustrated above, but they also show up at the top of the screen whenever you’re in the conversation view.

This functionality, love it or hate it, can be toggled on or off by the user.

Hide contact photos from the iOS Messages app

  1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Scroll down and tap Messages.
  3. Turn off the switch next to Show Contact Photos.
Turn off Show Contact Photos in Messages settings on iPhone

And just like that, you’re done! Return to the Messages app, and you will notice that it no longer shows the profile picture on the main screen as well as on the top of the conversations screen.

In the rare case that you can’t see these new changes, force-quit the Messages app from the App Switcher and reopen it.

Keep in mind that this setting affects all of your conversations in the Messages app, not just one, whether they’re iMessage or SMS conversations. You can easily reverse your setting by going through the steps above once again and toggling the switch change you made back to the position it was in before you changed it.

Important: Contact photos will continue to be visible for chats you have pinned to the top of the Messages screen.

Pinned messages on iPhone

While most people I know like having little contact photo bubbles, extreme minimalists may have to disagree with me. Fortunately, that’s what settings like this one are for.

Do you prefer having the contact photos turned on or off? Let us know about your preferred mode in the comments below!

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