Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@getaaron
Last active October 13, 2025 19:32
Show Gist options
  • Save getaaron/a9dc64b6ea2fa8299af6b7077f4386ae to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save getaaron/a9dc64b6ea2fa8299af6b7077f4386ae to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Enable iMessage (Messages) Subject Field in macOS Big Sur through Sonoma

Want the Subject field (for bold iMessages) in macOS’ Messages app?

  1. Quit Messages
  2. Open Terminal
  3. Run defaults write com.apple.MobileSMS MMSShowSubject 1
  4. Start Messages

This worked for me on a fresh install of macOS 14.1.1 (23B81) (new Mac mini).

Note: On modern versions of macOS, you must enable Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access for your Terminal app in System Settings.

@jbburf
Copy link

jbburf commented Jun 25, 2024

Very weird @2xsaiko, could you post / DM me your plist so I can copy that in and see if that works?

@dblsaiko
Copy link

@getaaron
Copy link
Author

@jbburf @2xsaiko can either of you identify the different between your two plists? It might be helpful for others and I can update the instructions if needed.

@dblsaiko
Copy link

I mean that's really it, I just added it to the top level dict as I said. To the end that is, after I ran Messages again it rewrote the file and placed it somewhere in the middle, that's why it's no longer at the end in the paste.

It's probably safer to tell people to edit it with Xcode instead, there's no risk of messing up the file that way...

@getaaron
Copy link
Author

@jbburf I just figured out that on modern versions of macOS, you must enable Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access for your Terminal app in System Settings and then it will work. I am not sure if that is what you were running into, but worth a shot if you never got it working.

@Eabusham2
Copy link

it works by going to privacy & security then go to full disk access and enable it for terminal. the only thing i dont like about enabling this is that the voice recording button is in middle and not in line soo it looks verry weird

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment