How to Delete Messages in iOS 12, iOS 11, iOS 10, iOS 9, iOS 8, & iOS 7

Sep 27, 2013 - 4 Comments

the Messages icon The Messages app received a significant makeover in iOS, and like many other elements of iOS some of it’s functionality changed as well. Many users have noticed that the behavior to delete messages has changed, leading some to believe the deletion feature was removed from Messages entirely (it wasn’t).

Let’s review how to remove segments of message threads in iOS 12, iOS 11, iOS 10, iOS 9, iOS 8, and iOS 7, and also how to delete an entire message conversation from the app completely.

Removing a message works the same for iMessages, multimedia messages, and for standard SMS text messages. To prevent any mistakes, you may want to adjust the setting to show full names within Messages before modifying or removing them.

How to Delete Individual Segments of a Messages on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch

  1. Open the messages conversation, then tap and hold on any text or image within the message dialog
  2. Choose “More” from the pop-up menu, then tap on the messages to delete so that a checkbox appears next to them
  3. Tap the Trash icon in the corner, then confirm the message deletion by choosing “Delete Message”

Delete parts of messages in iOS 7, iOS 8, and iOS 9

The primary difference between how this works now post iOS 7 versus Messages prior to iOS 7 is the removal of the “Edit” button, which has now be transformed into part of either the tap-and-hold trick mentioned above, or as a gesture which we’ll cover next.

If you’d prefer to delete an entire message thread, you can do that too, which is actually much easier than removing parts of a conversation.

How to Delete an Entire Messages Conversation on iPhone, iPad, iPod

  1. Open Messages app and from the primary message screen, swipe left on the entire conversation to delete
  2. Tap the red “Delete” button to instsantly remove the entire message conversation

Delete an entire message from iOS 7

Unlike removing segments of conversations, deleting the entire conversation has no confirmation, so be sure you want to delete the entire thread before continuing.

The removal of buttons is widespread throughout iOS after the 7.0 release, and like in many places there has been a move to gestures instead, whether it’s quitting out of apps, unlocking the screen, deleting emails and messages, or searching spotlight.

.

Related articles:

Posted by: Paul Horowitz in iPad, iPhone, Tips & Tricks

4 Comments

» Comments RSS Feed

  1. Chris Shannon says:

    newest ios on iPhone 8+ doesn’t do this. Holding the picture for several seconds pops up a box surrounding the picture and a more button at the bottom allows you to save or share. No delete.
    Then I discovered after 2-3 seconds, you can slide the picture up and it brings UP another set of choices including delete, but no sidebar and way of doing multiple pictures. Only one at a time. Also as soon as I lifted my finger from the picture to hit the delete button, it closed and went back to the picture. I had to have my wife push the delete button. Very TIME CONSUMING!!!

  2. jessicad says:

    hello!
    I used to be able to start a Text message to the same contact to his number and another to his email in separate conversations, but now everytime I try to send text message it goes directly as Imessage (if lucky and the text is long, I can quickly hold the text and choose Send as text message instead) but in my mac and phone, the conversations merge together instead of separated as it was before (text messages and Imessages separated) I have this problem since last year, there is no stop treading option in my phone either. Currently on Iphone 5, using latest IOS 2016
    help?

  3. Dp6 says:

    I have an iPhone 5c I pressed the more button. Checked the text. But there is no delete or trash can to press as before delete the individual text. And no swipe to reveal delete

  4. stephen hanks says:

    hello i am tryi to erase saved messages on my daughters i pod touch gen 5.If i go under usage the message app saysit using 3.5gb of memory do to saved messages.how do i erase these saved messages to manage space,all messages under the regular section where you can delete them is empty thahkyou

Leave a Reply

 

Shop on Amazon.com and help support OSXDaily!

Subscribe to OSXDaily

Subscribe to RSS Subscribe to Twitter Feed Follow on Facebook Subscribe to eMail Updates

Tips & Tricks

News

iPhone / iPad

Mac

Troubleshooting

Shop on Amazon to help support this site