• Deleting Imessages From Mac
• Deleting Imessages On Iphone
• Deleting Messages In Facebook Messenger

What happens when you delete messages or turn off the Messages in iCloud feature

With Messages in iCloud, when you delete a message, attachment, or conversation on one device, it deletes from all of your devices. This can help free up some space in your iCloud storage, while keeping the rest of your conversations up to date across your devices. Once you delete a message, you can't get it back.

If you don't need to keep your conversations up to date across your devices, you can turn off the Messages in iCloud feature. If you turn off Messages in iCloud on an iPhone or iPad, your message history is included in a separate iCloud backup.

Again, you can't delete messages on someone else's iPhone or iPad, but you can delete them from yours. Launch the Messages app from the Home screen. Tap on the conversation containing the message you want to delete. Tap and hold the message you want to delete. In fact, even if you delete a message while it’s in the processing of “Sending” you’re only removing your local copy on that particular device; the message itself will still get sent, and even appear on other devices that you have enabled for your iMessage account, such as a Mac or iPad.

How to delete messages from iCloud

With Messages in iCloud enabled, if you delete a message in one place, it deletes everywhere.

On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

To delete an individual message or attachment, follow these steps:

1. In a message conversation, touch and hold the message bubble or attachment that you want to delete.
2. Tap More.
3. Tap Trash , then tap Delete Message. If you want to delete all messages in the thread tap Delete All, in the upper-left corner. Then tap Delete Conversation.

To delete multiple attachments from a contact or conversation, follow these steps:

1. In a message conversation, tap the contact's name at the top of the screen.
2. Tap Info .
3. Select See All Photos
4. Tap Select, tap the images you'd like to delete.
5. Tap Delete, then tap Delete Attachment to confirm.

To delete an entire conversation, follow these steps:

1. Swipe left over the conversation that you want to delete.
2. Tap Delete.
3. Tap Delete again to confirm.

On your Mac

To delete an individual message or attachment, follow these steps:

1. Open a message conversation.
2. Control-click the blank area of a message bubble that you want to delete.
3. Choose Delete.
4. Click Delete.

To delete an entire conversation, follow these steps:

1. Control-click a conversation.
2. Choose Delete Conversation.
3. Click Delete.

Learn more about about deleting texts and attachments in Messages in iCloud.

Turn off the Messages in iCloud feature

If you don't want to store your message history in iCloud and keep your conversations up to date across your devices, use the steps below to turn off Messages in iCloud.

On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

1. Tap Settings > [your name].
2. Tap iCloud.
3. Tap Manage Storage.
4. Tap Messages, then tap Disable & Delete.

On your Mac

1. Open Messages, then choose Messages in the menu bar.
2. Select Preferences, then click iMessage.
3. Deselect Enable Messages in iCloud, then select Disable All.

If you can't delete messages on your Mac

If you delete individual messages from iCloud but you still see them on your Mac, you might need to edit your Messages settings on your Mac. In Messages, go to Preferences > General. Make sure that the box next to 'Save history when conversations are closed' is deselected.

Learn more about your iCloud storage limit

When you go over your iCloud storage limit, your messages and attachments don't upload to iCloud, and your devices won't back up or download to iCloud. You can still access your most recent messages, but they won't be stored in iCloud and deleted messages will not update on all of your devices. To keep using Messages in iCloud, upgrade your storage or free up space by deleting files that you don't need.

Bring all messengers into one

Text messaging is so ingrained into our days that it’d be difficult to imagine our lives without it. One can say texting is the perfect form of non-disruptive, asynchronous communication, since you only participate in it when convenient for you, as opposed to other real-time alternatives like calling.

Eventually, simple text messages (SMS) evolved to incorporate images and audio (MMS). In the meantime, the use of instant messaging (IM) software online, with AIM and Windows Live, was growing rapidly as well. Those two words collided and essentially merged with each other with the release of the iPhone.

Right now, most of us use at least a few messaging apps: Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Skype, Snapchat, etc. Apple’s own iMessage, both on iPhone and Mac, remains wildly popular too, as well as regular text messaging. But, with so many services, how much data do we generate? And what’s the best way to keep all this data private?

Safest way to delete messages

Install Setapp on Mac to keep your data safe. Get backup apps, data recovery tools, and more to always stay on the safe side.

Why Delete iMessage History On Mac?

First of all, the most secure way to ensure your conversations stay private on your devices is to only use apps that allow for end-to-end encryption, which prevents anyone (including the service provider) from eavesdropping on anything you say. Apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, and iMessage are already using end-to-end encryption to protect your privacy.

Second, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Even with end-to-end encryption in place, someone who takes possession of your phone can read anything you’ve sent or received. That’s where knowing how to delete all messages on Mac or iPhone regularly can help. Let’s go through a somewhat comprehensive checklist for keeping your iMessage history clean from any unwanted correspondence.

How to enable iMessage across devices

As you know, regular text messages and iMessages share the same Messages app on your iPhone. One of the advantages of using iMessage then is not only getting the secure end-to-end encryption but also being able to use it across devices — on your Mac, for example.

To turn on iMessage on your Mac:

1. Open the Applications folder (⌘ + Shift + A) and launch the Messages app

2. Go to Preferences (⌘ + ,) and switch to the iMessage tab

3. Check “Enable this account” and “Enable Messages in iCloud”

4. Click Sync Now

Now your iMessages will synchronize on your Mac and iPhone, so you can read and reply to any text from either device. Additionally, you can check the boxes in the “You can be reached for messages at” menu if you want to allow people to text you just by knowing your email.

If you’re wondering how to turn off iMessage on Mac at any time, simply uncheck the “Enable Messages in iCloud” option.

How to delete iMessages on Mac

To keep your conversations private, iMessage has a simple way for how to delete messages on Mac. You can use this method to delete either yours or someone else’s messages:

1. Open any conversation within your Messages app

2. Find a message you want to delete, right-click on it, and select Delete…

3. Click Delete to confirm

Note: When you delete an iMessage on Mac, it only removes the message on your side. The recipient will still see all the messages on their devices.

How to delete multiple messages on Mac

While knowing how to delete text messages on Mac is crucial to being able to occasionally hide sensitive data, sometimes you might want to find out how to delete all messages on messenger to leave little trace of whole conversations.

Here’s how to delete all iMessages on Mac:

1. In Messages, click on the conversation you want to delete

2. Go File ➙ Delete Conversation… from the menu bar. Alternatively, you can right-click on the conversation on the left side and select Delete Conversation… from there. A third option is to highlight the conversation and then simply hit ⌘ + Delete.

3. Confirm Delete

How to delete all messages on Mac automatically

As you can see, deleting occasional messages or whole conversations is easy when you have to do it just a few times here and there. But the process is still largely manual and it’s very easy to forget to delete a specific message if you can be bombarded with new ones all the time.

Luckily, it’s possible to set a sort of destructive timer on your iMessage on Mac, which would automatically delete everything past a certain date. Here’s how:

1. Open the Messages app and then Preferences (⌘ + ,)

2. Click the “Keep messages” dropdown and select whether to let your messages stay in the app for 30 days, one year, or forever

Now you don’t have to worry about any messages lingering on for longer than they should.

Deleting Imessages From Mac

How to clear iMessage transcripts

Sometimes, you might be having a private rapid-fire conversation with a few people at the same time and want to periodically delete all the messages so far but still keep the discussion going. Deleting the conversation outright wouldn’t be optimal here as it would close the tab completely, interrupting the flow.

Surprisingly, iMessage has another function for that called Clear Transcript, which simply deletes all the messages in any given conversation but keeps the window open. To use Clear Transcript:

1. Open any conversation in the Messages app

2. Select Edit ➙ Clear Transcript (⌘ + Option + K) from the menu bar

How to close conversations temporarily

Another option that the Messages app on Mac offers is to simply hide or close conversations without deleting any content in them. That way no one would see that conversations ever took place, but you’d also get the full history back once someone in the chat sends a new message.

To close any conversation in Messages:

1. Go to Preferences and then check or uncheck “Save history when conversations are closed”

2. Hover over the conversation on the left side and click the X symbol just below the date

How to delete all iMessages on Mac forever

Using any of the options above should be more than enough to help you keep your life private. But if you want to absolutely make sure that no trace of your messages is left behind, you might wonder where are iMessages stored on Mac?

Fortunately, your Mac makes it easy to dive straight into your Library folder and delete the Messages files (or back them up somewhere safe) manually:

1. Open Messages ➙ Preferences ➙ iMessage and then Sign Out

2. Quit the Messages app

3. From the menu bar, choose Go ➙ Go to Folder (⌘ + Shift + G)

4. Type in ~/Library/Messages and then Go

5. Delete Archive and Attachments folders as well as chat.db, chat.db-shm, and chat.db-wal

6. Restart your Mac

It might take some time for Messages to reconfigure itself the next time you use it, but all the files and conversations should now be gone.

What are the best messaging apps for Mac

Even though knowing how to turn off messages on Mac is quite invaluable, iMessage is just one type of an instant messaging service out there, and most of us use at least a handful of its competitors. What apps should we install to rule the messaging world?

ChatMate for WhatsApp is a powerful and blazing fast WhatsApp client for Mac that cares about your privacy by letting you hide text previews, tweak notifications, and enable Stealth Mode, which only displays messages when you hover over them. The app also locks itself, provides Touch ID supports, and features a truly customizable interface.

Grids is a lightweight Instagram app for Mac that lets you DM friends and do anything you usually do in your mobile app. Upload multiple photos and videos, add captions, locations, and emojis, search, post Stories directly from your Mac’s desktop, and more. In addition, Grids supports multiple profiles, so you can maintain both personal and business accounts just by switching a single toggle.

Avoid deleting messages with IM+

Bring all messengers into one and forget about digging into separate apps. IM+ is a handy utility that safely unites all your chats.

Deleting Imessages On Iphone

IM+ is the dream for those who need to use multiple messengers and social media, and simply can’t manage dozens of various apps at once. With IM+, you can add any messaging service you like, from Skype to Instagram to Slack, and then use all of them from one straightforward interface. What’s more, you can define notifications for work and personal accounts, use shortcuts to switch between services, and update your status with ease.

Best of all, ChatMate, Uplet, and IM+ are available to you right now absolutely free during the trial of Setapp, a rapidly growing platform with more than 180 popular Mac apps to cover any problem you might have. Start by keeping your iMessages private, get a few apps to manage your other accounts, and see the immediate difference at no cost!

Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.

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Deleting Messages In Facebook Messenger