Delete Messages on iPhone with This Easy Steps – 2026 Guide

The iPhone makes it easy to delete a single message, remove an entire conversation, or clear older texts you no longer need.

With our complete guide, you can learn how to delete messages on your iPhone with ease. It is also possible to undo messages you sent or edit them when you use the iOS 16 models. Let's take a closer look!

Delete Single Messages From Your Messages Thread

If you no longer want to have a message in your messages thread on your iPhone, you think the thread is getting crowded, or you want to get rid of specific messages for privacy reasons, you can delete it.

Steps

1. Open a conversation in the iMessages app.
2. Within it, touch and hold the message bubble. This opens an options menu.
3. Click on More > Trash > Delete Message.

Delete Message in the iMessages app

Undo a Sent Message with iOS 16

Deleting a message removes it only from your side of the conversation. If you want to pull back a recent iMessage for both sides, use Undo Send instead.

Steps

1. Open the Messages app and click on a conversation.
2. Touch and hold the message that you want to unsend.
3. Click on Undo Send.
4. You get a notification that says, ‘You sent a message'.

You unsent a message

Edit a Sent Message

Everyone has made embarrassing typos when chatting with a contact on the iMessage app. Before the iOS16, you had to let the recipient know that you made a mistake in another message.

Now, you can edit a sent message within 15 minutes after it was sent. If you edit it, you see Edited under the message, and you can edit a message up to five times within 15 minutes. On older Apple software, the recipient may instead see a follow-up line that starts with Edited to.

Steps

1. Open Messages and click on the conversation.


iMessage Conversation

2. Touch and hold the message that you want to edit.
3. Click on the Edit button.


The message you sent is available to edit

4. Edit the text and click on the checkmark to send it. You can click on X to go back to the original message.

The Message is edited and Send Successfully

Delete Conversation on iMessage

Although you can delete a single thread of messages in a conversation, it's also possible to delete an entire conversation on the iMessage app.

If you think you have too many conversations on your phone or no longer want to have a specific conversation, it's easy to delete it.

Steps to Delete a Conversation

1. Open the Messages app and click on the conversation you want to delete.
2. Swipe left on the conversation.


Swipe left on the conversation

3. Click on Delete.
4. Confirm Delete in the pop-up menu.

Steps to Delete Multiple Conversations

1. Open the Messages app.
2. Click on Edit at the top-left corner of the page.


Edit pop up

3. Choose the conversations you want to delete.


Multiple conversations selected

4. Select Delete .

Recover Deleted Messages in a Conversation

It is possible to recover a message that you deleted in a conversation after 30 days. You can also recover the entire conversation that you have deleted. In the beginning, you can choose to hide the messages instead of deleting it if you don't want this happening again.

Steps

1. Click on the arrow (<) on top of the message conversation.
2. Click on Edit > Show Recently Deleted OR Filters > Recently Deleted.


Show Recently Deleted OR Filters

3. Click on the message that you want to recover.


Recently Deleted on iMessages

4. Select Recover Messages.


Recover Messages

How to Mark a Message as Unread with iOS 16

Marking a conversation as unread is still available in Messages, and it helps when you want to come back to a text later without losing track of it.

On current iPhone software, you can also swipe right on a conversation in the list to mark it unread, or use Edit to mark several threads at once.

Steps

1. Open the Messages app.
2. Click on the message in the conversations list.
3. Long press it and click on Mark as Unread.

Mark as Unread