iMessage Has a Hidden Bookmarking Feature

When you think about iMessage, it’s easy to focus on all the cool full-screen effects, emoji reactions—and even the hidden flight tracker. One thing no one thinks about, however, is bookmarking. It turns out that iMessage has a hidden bookmarking feature that makes it easier to keep track of links people share with you.

I keep forgetting to open links people send via iMessage, and I’ve always wished for a super simple way to bookmark these web pages. Turns out that your iPhone allows you to do this, but the feature is buried beneath an obscure option. Daring Fireball discovered this feature recently, and it finally has its moment in the sun.

How to use iMessage’s built-in bookmarking feature

Whenever you receive a link on iMessage, tap and hold the link, then tap the Pin button from the small menu that pops up. This will add the link to the Safari start page for quick reference, and it’ll also save the bookmark in an easy-to-access place in Messages itself. It just takes two taps to save useful links for later and to access them at leisure.

On Safari’s start page on your iPhone, you’ll see all pinned links under the Shared With You section. A pin icon appears below all of these bookmarks, which will help you identify which of the links are your bookmarks. You can pin links you’ve sent or received—as long as the link is in iMessage, it can be bookmarked this way.

To find pinned links from within the Messages app, open the chat where the link was pinned and tap the name of the contact at the top. This will open the contact screen. You can scroll down to the Pins section to locate all of your iMessage bookmarks from this chat. You will only see the pins from individual chats here. If you’ve pinned a link from a chat with your friend, it won’t show up in the Pins section in any other chat. A global collection of all of these iMessage bookmarks only appears in Safari.