what does the black dot next to my text message 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 changed the "larger tex" option off (accessibility settings), rebooted my phone, and it cleared up.

Look up “black dot of death” in Google search

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 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.

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?

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

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

Is this “the black dot of death” hack that you can Google?

Telestai787 wrote:

Is this “the black dot of death” hack that you can Google?

No. That was a unicode bug that was fixed three years ago.

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?

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.

Same for me. Why is this happening.

Black dot on a specific contacts text message others are blue