Messages still being stored on iPhone

[Mcmeowmers]

I was under the impression that upon updating to iOS 11.4, enabling Messages in iCloud, and then uploading messages to iCloud would provide me with extra storage space on my iPhone.

I was expecting Messages to download to my iPhone much like iCloud Photo Library does.

http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-iphone-imessages-ios-11-icloud-2017-6

BI reported it as I described and so did macrumors. Am I missing something because I really don't see the point of uploading ~4gb of messages to iCloud just so it could sync with a second device. I had no problem with messages appearing or not appearing on my other devices before iOS 11 anyways.

So currently I am left with ~4gb of messages on my iPhone and ~4gb of my iCloud storage used up. Is there anyway I can free up space on my iPhone? Thanks

 

[ZEEN0j]

Best guess you'll get space when you need it. Same as optimize photos.

 

[bookemdano]

I don't know if it archives old texts to the cloud to free up space on devices (maybe it only does this if your device becomes severely space constrained?)

But these are the known benefits as I understand it:

1. Saves iCloud space by not including messages in each device's iCloud backup. Once turned on, with all your messages stored in the cloud, it should no longer include messages in the backups it does (same as it does with photos once iCloud Photo Library is turned on). So you're only storing one copy of your messages, rather than one copy for each device you back up to iCloud.

2. If you need to set up a new device and can't or don't wish to restore a backup to it, then by storing your messages in the cloud all of them will sync over to the new device once you sign into iCloud on it.

3. Message syncing between devices will be more reliable. I know you said you didn't have problems before, but for instance if you kept one of your devices turned off for a period of time (not sure exactly what the limit is) then some messages you received while it was off may never get delivered to the device that was off. Also, with this feature when you delete a text on one device it gets deleted on all of them.

 

[Mcmeowmers]

Follow up: Upon restarting and leaving the phone plugged in over night - only the recent conversation and messages are stored on my phone. With the ability to scroll up to read previous messages!