When using Messages in OS X to chat with friends and colleagues, the program will save a record of your message contents, to then keep a history of your conversation that you can review at a later point. While immediate conversation messages may be on Apple’s servers and synchronize to your devices, once this is done they will be gone, so your device retains the history so you can browse and search it if needed. Continue reading
How to manage your Messages histories in OS X
3 Replies
If you use a Mac, an iPhone, or iPad, then likely you use Apple’s Messages service to contact your friends and colleagues. Given Apple’s push for you to sign up with iCloud, this service is a convenient way to get in contact, and has some perks like full end-to-end encryption; however, there have been some concerns about Messages and other services where message content is stored on central servers where its possible it could be read by others. 
If you are a long-time user of Apple’s cloud-based services, and have been using your Apple ID ending in mac.com or me.com to chat over the AIM network, then on May 17, you will be required to run OS X 10.7.2 or later.