Can’t enlarge pictures in text message

I had the same experience - showing the circles with check marks in them - and then it just occurred to me that I was in a "delete selected" mode or something. You have to cancel out of that first (upper right "cancel"), then it works.

So the correct procedure is NOT to 2-finger spread on an image to zoom - that is what gets you into that "delete selected" mode described above. You have to tap on the image once first, it expands to fill screen, THEN you can 2-finger spread zoom in further.

My wife was experieincing the same issue on her iPhone 6. I succeeded by using a quick "hard" tap on the image. It worked every time.

You’re activating the edit, hit cancel on top right to get out of that.

Do a quick tap in the messages to open the image first, then try zooming out (pinch out)

Hello 14music,

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities! I see you're having an issue with enlarging a picture sent in Messages, and I'd like to help out.

When you try to zoom in on the picture, are you tapping on the photo first, so it opens? Then you should be able to zoom in.

If that doesn't work, have you restarted your iPhone since this started happening? If not, go ahead and restart following the steps for your iPhone model in this article, then try again: Restart your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

More info on the Messages app: Use Messages on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Cheers!

This actually worked on my Iphone 8. I turned on Touch Accomodations and also Swipe Gestures. Under Tap Assistance, I checked "Use Initial Touch Location". Seemed to fix the problem. The little bubbles to the left of messages disappeared, and I could enlarge pics once again. The hard tap was a waste of time for me.

Hope this helps someone. Good luck!!

Brand new iphone 11 up to date ios as of Jan 20. A gentle press on the image initiates a haptic response and the image swells in size. You can then enlarge it. Be quick as it reverts. Press copy and it saves in images.

I believe I have figured it out. If you go to the picture within a text and try to enlarge it you get the blue circle checkmark to the left of the picture. If you first see the picture and just tap (no need to tap it hard) the picture you can then use finger spread to enlarge the pic.

If you forget and do the way we used to, just cancel and then tap the pic.

Hope this helps.

I have an iPhone SE and have the same problem. It’s way annoying but if you go to information button up the top of the screen, you can go to where all of the photos and links that you and the sender have shared are collected and it doesn’t happen there. You can still zoom the photos by finger pinching them out as usual.

Good to know that it’s an Apple problem and not just my phone being a pain.

The hard tap works but that is not intuitive at all. Seems like a bad change to me.

The hard tap did not work, but four fast taps does! Easiest done by using two fingers. Works 100% of the time.

I have found that if I first tap into the text box as if I am going to write something and then tap on the image, I am able to enlarge.

So I'm glad there is an answer to this- hard tapping the picture once, but why take away a simple multi touch zoom function? If two fingers are doing the traditional "zooming" gesture while touching a photo why not have it implemented? Makes no sense.

It's not a "hard" tap but a simple single finger tap before the double finger motion. No force is needed. I do think this was not a good change on Apple's part.

Pause finger on pic extra tad long

when vibrates and gets bigger the zoom in

that or

tap one quick tap

then when it pops

zoom with fingers

A simple finger tap worked for me👍🏻