How to Control Message Recording in iPhone iMessage

Sending voice messages on iPhone in iMessage is useful but sometimes it also leads to accidentally recording voice without your knowledge. A hidden setting to send iPhone audio messages instead of text messages is Raise to Listen. Check this setting on iPhone to increase control over iPhone iMessage recording, according to the article below.

How does the iPhone Raise to Listen feature work?

When you receive a new audio message in the Messages app, just raise your iPhone to your ear to listen. This feature will default to 2 minutes after you hear the message.

In case you want to extend the 2-minute time to listen to audio messages on iPhone is also very simple. You access Settings and select Applications , then we select Messages to adjust again.

In the message settings adjustment interface, we see the default Expires in 2 minutes. You can change it to No to listen to unlimited voice messages.

After you hear an incoming audio message, lower your iPhone and bring it to your ear if you want to send an audio message back. When you're done speaking, lower your iPhone again and the recording you just created can be sent if you want.

How to Prevent Accidentally Sending iPhone Voice Messages

As mentioned above, after listening to a voice message by lifting the iPhone up and then lowering it, if you want to record the sound to send it back, just lift the iPhone up again. This causes us to accidentally record the voice and send it to the other person without knowing. If so, turn off the raise to listen setting to limit the situation of sending the wrong audio message.

We also access the message settings in Settings. Here you just need to turn off Raise to listen .

Turning off Raise to Listen still allows you to receive audio messages, but you have to manually press the play button on the message to start and pause playback.

Jessica Tanner

Update 08 December 2025