Delete Telegram Messages and Chat Histories

 

Deleting Messages from Telegram

As of Telegram 5.5 (released in March of 2019), anyone can delete a message from a one-on-one chat from all devices. This includes both messages that you’ve sent and messages that you’ve received. There are no time limits, and the message will be deleted from all devices, including the Telegram server.

Cloud chats with multiple participants work differently. You can only delete messages that you’ve sent from everyone’s devices within 48 hours of sending them. After this, you can still delete a message, but it will remain on both the server and the recipients’ devices. If the recipients also delete the message, then it’s gone forever.

To delete a message, tap and hold it, then choose Delete.

You can then choose between “Delete for me” and “Delete for everyone,” or whoever it is you’re talking to.

One slightly confusing caveat that’s worth noting is this: If you or a recipient is somehow using a version of Telegram prior to 5.5 in a one-on-one chat, then you’re limited to the same 48-hour window and rules that currently exist for cloud chats.

If you want to erase all copies of such a message from Telegram’s servers—even the recipient’s copy—you’ll need to ask the recipient of the message to delete it on their device, too.

To delete the entire conversation, swipe right on it in the conversations list and choose Delete. You’ll be asked whether you want to delete messages on your end or for the entire conversation.

Don’t Forget About Push Notifications

Being able to delete a message from a recipient’s device sounds like a godsend akin to Gmail’s unsend feature, but it’s not quite the silver bullet that many users wish it was. The reason for this is that push notifications are handled differently.

If you send a message to a friend that has push notifications enabled for Telegram (a messaging app isn’t much use without them), your message will still appear in their notifications. Most mobile devices delete notifications once they’ve been tapped, but most still contain the bulk of an incoming message.

So while no record of your message will appear in Telegram, a user could take a screenshot of their incoming notifications and store the message indefinitely.