what does the black dot next to my text message mean

I am having the same issue on my new iPhone 12. I don't understand what the black dot is. I believe the blue dot means unread, but what about the black dot.

The message does not have "hide alerts on" or anything else. What does the black dot mean?

Hello jjtcf,

Thank you for reaching out in Apple Support Communities. We understand you're noticing a black dot next to a text message. We'll be happy to help.

Just to be sure, are you seeing a crescent moon icon from the conversation thread in the Messages app? For a visual of what we're referring to, please follow the section that says, "Turn on Hide alerts": Use Messages on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

If that doesn't help, please answer the following questions:

1. Are you noticing the black dot upon receiving a text message or when you send an outgoing text message?
2. Does it occur with a specific contact or all contacts?
3. Were there any recent changes on your iPhone, since you've noticed this?

Kind regards.

I have the same issue. It’s with a specific contact. It’s only when they text me. I’ve been trying to figure this out for a couple of months with no answer from other apple phone users or apple representative. I’m really frustrated. Is apple responded to your issue yet?

I just noticed the same thing today. My alerts are the same, but it was only for my daughter, on an incoming unread message. At first I thought maybe she was texting me from her computer, but she said no. Thanks

Precisely!

I must be driving the hosts nuts today...... ;-)

KBLack-Smith wrote:

Why is Apple not responding to this question of the black dot??

no one mentioned a crescent.

Im having same thing occur.

This is a user-to-user forum. Apple's participation here is minimal. If you want to discuss the matter with them directly, use the Contact Support link at the top right of every page of these forums.

This happened to me today. Then when I charged my phone it began rapidly overheating. I deleted the string of messages and while the black dot message was gone, my phone was still overheating during charging. I did some more research, found this video and followed the instruction to use the 3D button to send a message afterwards, and that seemed to solve the problem.

Hope this helps someone else.

[Link Edited by Moderator]

i hope Apple is still investigating the black dot. It is a black dot rather than blue indicating unread text. Its not a crescent moon.

In response to your questions-

1) All were on incoming text.

2) I’ve noticed on 3 contacts, first time was from Samsung, but last 2 were iPhones. All 3 contacts were on favs list (5 total) it’s not every text they send, only a few. And sometimes group text, sometimes not.

I use enlarged text.

3) I have had a deluge of spam text since around appearance of first black dot. Hope we can get answers from Apple soon. Thank you

Imokareyouok wrote:

3) I have had a deluge of spam text since around appearance of first black dot. Hope we can get answers from Apple soon. Thank you

You won't get answers from Apple here in this user-to-user forum. If you want to discuss the matter with Apple, use the Contact Support link at the top right of every page of these forums.

I have come to

the conclusion that if your on social media ex: (Instagram) or the other person is on while texting it shows a black dot. Try and see if this is the case. This has been what I have noticed.

Same issue for me. I just had a black dot appear next to a text message instead of the normal blue one

OP, a friend of mine is experiencing this too, but I haven’t yet.

Do you have the “larger text” option enabled?

Same for me. Why is this happening.

Black dot on a specific contacts text message others are blue

Same thing! I noticed it for the first time yesterday. It's only on a couple of messages, and it's not always the same person. I don't have do not disturb or anything like that on......🤷🏼‍♀️