You're not going to save a lot of space on an iPhone by deleting messages — even a lot of plain text messages take up an inconsequential amount of space — but you might want to delete messages for privacy reasons or just because it keeps your Messages app better organized. (And texts with images actually can take up a fair bit of room.) Show
Whatever the reason, you can delete entire conversations or just specific messages. And you can even configure your phone to delete messages automatically after a certain period of time. When we say messages, note that we mean all the messages in the Messages app — which includes both iMessages, exchanged among iPhones, and ordinary SMS text messages, which are exchanged with non-iPhone devices. You can always tell which are which: your iMessages appear in blue text bubbles, while your SMS texts appear in green bubbles. How to delete a conversation on an iPhoneIt's easy to eliminate an entire conversation with just a swipe. 1. Open the Messages app. 2. Scroll through your messages until you find the conversation that you want to remove. 3. Swipe to the left until you see "Delete." Swipe left to delete an entire conversation in the Messages app. Dave Johnson/Business Insider4. Tap "Delete" and then tap "Delete" again in the confirmation window that appears at the bottom of the screen. How to delete one or more messages in a conversationIf you don't want to eliminate the entire conversation, you can delete messages singly or in a bunch. 1. Open the Messages app. 2. Scroll through your messages until you find the conversation you want to delete messages from, and tap on it. 3. Find the message you want to delete, and then tap and hold it for about three seconds. Tap and hold on an individual message to get additional options. Dave Johnson/Business Insider4. Tap "More…" in the pop-up window and then do one of the following:
How to automatically delete old messagesIf you don't feel the need to hold onto messages forever, you can configure your iPhone to do the deleting on your behalf. 1. Open the Settings app and tap "Messages." 2. Tap "Keep Messages." 3. By default, the iPhone keeps all messages forever (or until you manually delete them). If you prefer, tap "30 Days" or '1 Year." If you do, the iPhone will automatically discard your messages after the selected time period. If you don't want to keep your messages forever, Settings can automatically remove them after a month or a year. Dave Johnson/Business InsiderRelated coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:
Dave Johnson Freelance Writer Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider. Read more Read less Insider Inc. receives a commission when you buy through our links. How do I delete all my iPhone messages at once?Apple iPhone - Delete Messages. Tap. Edit. (prior to selecting a conversation).. Tap. Select Messages. .. Tap the desired conversations then tap. Delete. (lower-right).. How do I delete all messages on my Samsung phone?Delete Messages in Trash. From a Home screen, swipe up from the center of the display to access the apps screen.. Tap. Messages. .. Tap the. Menu icon. (upper-right).. Tap. Trash. .. Touch and hold the desired message to delete.. To select all, tap. All. (upper-left). ... . Tap. Delete all. (bottom-right).. Tap. Delete. to confirm.. |