Like most of you, I use the Mac Messages App throughout the day. It receives fairly heavy usage in my daily workflow. Occasionally, I walk away from my computer to do other things. When I get back, there is a text from someone. More often than not, I need to do something based on that text. For that reason, it is helpful to know what time the text actually arrived. You can check arrival times in Mac Messages. Here is how you do that.

Messages Show Times

Here is a typical Messages window.

If you need to know the timing of a text message, just right-click or “Control ⌃” click in the message window and select “Show Times”.

All the times of the text entries will be displayed.

You can also display times by using the slide motion from right to left on a Magic Mouse or Trackpad. This slide motion works the same on an iPhone of iPad.

This may be helpful in putting texts and activities associated with them into a time frame for action.

Conclusion

This is not exactly a big deal, but it might come in handy if your texts require you to do things within a certain time frame.