Set iMessage profile picture and name for yourself and friends

Set iMessage profile pictures and names

By providing each contact with a recognizable photo and name, you make iMessage much more organized. When an incoming message arrives, you can immediately see who it is by looking at the photo. By default you get a colored circle with initials, but you can easily customize this for yourself and others. Your messages will always contain the correct contact photo and name. If you don’t have a real photo, you can also use an Animoji or Memoji.

• Set photo for yourself
• Set photo for others
• Set name or nickname

Set iMessage profile picture for yourself

The steps you take to set your profile photo are different if you have enabled the unknown senders filter. Either way, these steps will help you figure it out:

1. Open the Messages app.
2. Tap Edit at the top left. Don’t you see this? Then you have enabled the filter and you have to tap the three dots at the top right.
3. Choose Change name and photo.

Choose profile photo: These are your options

After you have reached your profile page via the steps above, it is time to actually adjust the photo. That is how it works:

1. Below the circle, tap Change to set a different image.
2. Choose a photo, emoji, text or one of the suggestions at the bottom of the screen.
3. Make sure the image is properly positioned in the circle.

Set iMessage profile picture for others

Others can of course also set a profile photo for themselves, which you will see by default. If a friend has not set a profile photo, or has a photo that you hate, you can change this. You do this by setting a different photo for this person in the address book. This only affects what you see, so the contact person will not notice this.

1. In iMessage, tap the contact at the top of the conversation.
2. Then choose the Info button.
3. Tap Edit and tap Edit again below the photo.
4. Set another photo.

This photo will now also appear in iMessage and other apps that use the contact list. If this friend has a new contact photo, you will receive a notification. You can then choose to use this new contact photo, or the image you chose yourself.

Set iMessage name or nickname

You can also set a screen name in iMessage, both for yourself and for others. This may be a different name than what is in your address book. Your self-chosen name will be shown to people who have not registered you as a contact in the address book. Setting the iMessage screen name is the same as changing the photo. You tap Change or the three dots, depending on your chosen filter settings.

You can also change the friend’s name. You use a trick for this, namely the Nickname field in the address book. This is useful, for example, if you only want to see the first names of friends instead of the full first and last name.

1. Open the Contacts app and scroll to the person you want.
2. Tap Edit.
3. Scroll down and tap Add field.
4. Tap Nickname.
5. Enter a nickname, for example just the person’s first name.
6. Tap Done.

We have more tips about photos and contacts in iMessage:

• This is how you block contacts in iMessage and FaceTime
• Share contact cards via iMessage: this is how you do it
• Sending photos and videos with iMessage: this is how you do it