How to Delete Facebook Messages on Both Sides in Messenger

The other person can still see your message unless you choose Delete for everyone, and that option only exists for messages you sent. Delete for you, and deleting a whole chat, clear your side alone. Even Delete for everyone cannot undo what they have already read.

Meta has renamed these options: Unsend for everyone is now Delete for everyone, and Unsend for you is now Delete for you. Some Facebook menus still use the old words, or Remove.

Delete a message on your phone

1. Open the chat in the Messenger app.
2. Press and hold the message.
3. Tap Delete.
4. Tap Delete for everyone, or Delete for you.

On a message someone sent you, only your own copy can go. Press and hold it, tap More, tap Remove on Android or Delete on iPhone, then confirm.

Delete a message on a computer

The Messenger desktop app for Mac and Windows is gone, and Meta now points computer users to facebook.com/messages in a browser.

1. Open the chat.
2. Hover over the message and click the three dots beside it.
3. Click Delete.
4. Click Delete for everyone, or Delete for you. A message you received offers only Delete for you.

Facebook’s own help page for this still calls the last steps Unsend, then Unsend for everyone or Unsend for you, then Remove. It is the same action. Reading messages without the Messenger app on your phone is covered under alternative Facebook apps for Android.

Delete a whole chat

This takes the chat and its media out of your inbox, and it is permanent. The other person keeps their copy: Meta says you cannot delete an entire chat from a friend’s inbox.

• iPhone: in Chats, swipe left on the conversation, tap More, tap Delete, then Delete again.
• Android: in Chats, press and hold the conversation, tap Delete, then Delete again.
• Computer: open the chat, click Options at the top of it, click Delete chat, then Delete chat again.

To clear several on your phone, delete one and tap Delete more in the notice that appears. Select the rest, tap Delete and confirm. That is the only bulk option on Meta’s help page. Browser extensions that promise to wipe everything are not Meta’s and work inside your signed-in account, so we would leave them alone.

If you only want a chat out of sight, archive it instead. On a computer, hover over it in your chat list, click Options, then Archive chat. It stays hidden until the next time you chat with that person.

What the other person sees

After Delete for you, nothing changes on their side. They still have the message.

After Delete for everyone, the message is gone from their chat, but expect them to know something was removed. When the feature launched in 2018, TechCrunch reported that Messenger warned senders: “They can see that you removed a message and still report it.” A line saying so stayed in the thread. Meta’s current pages do not give the wording, though they do say that anyone who downloads their Facebook data can see that messages were deleted, not what those messages said.

A few limits apply either way:

• They may have read it before you deleted it, and Messenger cannot take back a screenshot.
• They can still report it. Meta can review a deleted message if it is reported within 14 days of deletion.
• Deleting a forwarded Facebook post removes only the copy in the chat, not the original post.

The launch version gave you 10 minutes to unsend. Meta’s current help pages state no time limit.

What changes in end-to-end encrypted chats

Meta has been making personal chats end-to-end encrypted by default, though Marketplace and some business chats are not. To check one, look for the “End-to-end encrypted” label in the chat’s settings. The delete steps are the same, and these things differ:

• The reporting window for a deleted message is 6 hours instead of 14 days.
• Deleting a message from your chats also removes it from your encrypted backup, and you cannot get it back.
• Meta cannot read the chat, but anyone in it can still share messages with Meta by reporting them.

You may also have two chats with one person, an encrypted one and an older one that has been archived. To delete the encrypted one in the mobile app, search for the person, open the result labelled Secret conversation, scroll down and tap Delete chat. The older chat then becomes your active one with them, and it is secured with encryption too.