Audio messages in the Messages app are cool little ways of communicating without text. You can tell someone you love them, send them a song clip, or just ask what’s up, all with your own voice.

The thing about audio messages, however, is that they don’t hang around forever. By default, they expire after two minutes of sending or listening to them, not to be heard again. This might be fine for some, but not for others.

If you fall into the “others” category and want to hang onto those clips, here’s how to stop audio messages from expiring in the Messages app on iOS.

Change when audio messages expire

Keep your audio messages as long as you want by following these steps to change the expire time.

1) Open your Settings and select Messages.

2) Scroll down to Audio Messages.

3) Select it and then tap Never.

This changes the default two-minute expire so that you can replay the audio messages whenever you want.

One thing to keep in mind when stopping your audio messages from expiring is that they can begin to take up space on your device. So, if down the road you want to change it back, just follow the steps above and select 2 minutes in Step 3.

Do more with Messages

For related how-tos for the Messages app, check out these tutorials.

Wrapping it up

Audio messages can be fun, meaningful, and memorable. And if you want to make sure they don’t disappear, following these steps lets you replay them when you choose.

Do you use audio messages in the Messages app? If so, do you send them because it’s easier than typing or do you reserve them for something special?