Your Facebook Messenger inbox is an essential communication and marketing tool for your business. According to Birdeye data, 87% of businesses consider Facebook important or mission-critical. This statistic underscores the significance of leveraging tools like Messenger and Facebook reviews as valuable marketing assets.
Unfortunately, sometimes Facebook Messenger inboxes can become cluttered due to the continuous onslaught of messages from leads, customers, and vendors.
Knowing how to delete messages on Messenger can help you prioritize important messages and grow your business efficiently. This guide will help you understand how to delete messages on Messenger and help you take control of your digital conversations to finetune your Facebook Messenger marketing efforts.
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Why you may need to delete Facebook messages?
Some messages on Facebook Messenger are important conversations that convert into sales. But it’s all too easy for important messages to fall through the cracks amidst the avalanche of other casual messages.
Knowing how to delete a message in Messenger will help you get rid of the noise and easily locate crucial conversations.
Anyone with a Facebook account can delete individual chat messages and entire conversations or move old messages to archived chats.
Can you delete Facebook messages?
You might be wondering, “Can you delete Facebook messages?” The answer is yes! Facebook Messenger allows users to delete individual messages or even entire conversations. If you’re unsure about how to manage your messages, this guide will walk you through the process.
Deleting individual messages on mobile
To delete individual messages on the Messenger mobile app, follow these steps:
- Step 1: Open the Messenger app on your smartphone.
- Step 2: Go to the conversation that contains the message you want to delete.
- Step 3: Tap and hold the message you want to delete.
- Step 4: Select “Remove” and confirm the action.
Deleting individual messages on desktop
If you prefer using Messenger on your computer, delete individual messages like this:
- Step 1: Open the Messenger website on your desktop browser.
- Step 2: Go to the conversation containing the message you want to delete.
- Step 3: Hover your cursor over the message and click on the three dots (ellipsis) that appear.
- Step 4: Choose “Delete” and confirm the action.
How to delete Messenger messages – deleting entire conversations?
If you want to know how can you delete messages on Messenger, here’s how:
- Step 1: Open the Messenger app on your smartphone.
- Step 2: Locate the conversation you wish to delete.
- Step 3: Swipe left on the conversation.
- Step 4: Select “More.”
- Step 5: Tap the “Delete” button.
To delete an entire conversation on Messenger’s desktop version, follows these steps:
- Step 1: Open the Messenger website on your desktop browser.
- Step 2: Find the conversation you want to delete.
- Step 3: Hover your cursor over the conversation and click on the three dots (ellipsis) that appear.
- Step 4: Select “Delete” from the options.
How to unsend a message on Messenger without them knowing?
Unsending a message on Facebook Messenger is simple. To do it, follow these steps:
- Open Messenger and locate the message you wish to unsend.
- If you are on Messenger.com, hover over the message and click “More.”
- If you are on the desktop app, right-click on the message you wish to unsend, then click on the three-dot menu.
- Select “Unsend.”
- From there, you’ll see two options: Unsend for everyone and Unsend for you. Select your desired outcome.
Note: If you select “Unsend for everyone,” the message will disappear from your inbox and the recipient’s inbox. You will not be able to restore the message.
How to hide a message you received?
If you want to declutter your inbox and hide a few messages without deleting them, you can do so. Facebook Messenger allows businesses to archive conversations (but not individual messages) for their convenience.
Follow the steps below to hide messages from your inbox using the archive option.
Step 1: Choose the Messenger conversation. Within Facebook Messenger, locate the conversation you wish to hide. This can be done on the mobile app.
Step 2: Open the menu. Next, choose and hold the conversation without opening it. A menu with the “Archive” and “Delete” options appears.
Step 3: Select “Archive chats.” Remember, even when you choose “Archive”, the messages you hid will reappear when the Facebook conversation resumes.
How to recover deleted messages from Messenger?
The above steps showed you how to delete messages in Messenger. But if you’ve mistakenly deleted an important message, don’t worry; there’s still hope to recover:
Step 1: Go to the main Messenger screen.
Step 2: Tap on the gear icon (Settings).
Step 3: Select “Archived Chats.”
Step 4: Look for the conversation containing the deleted message.
Step 5: Restore the conversation, and the message will reappear.
Don’t want to delete messages on Messenger? Archive it
If you don’t want to delete messages permanently, you can archive them. Archiving moves conversations out of your main inbox but keeps them stored and easily retrievable.
How to access an archived message on Facebook Messenger?
Archiving is a good way to remove the chat/conversation from the main view until you need it again. And when you need to, you can see archived conversations with the following steps on your mobile:
- Open your Facebook Messenger app.
- Tap your profile picture in the top-left corner.
- Scroll down and tap “Archived chats”.
- Find the chat you wish to see and open it.
On your desktop, you can see archived messages with the following steps:
- Go to Facebook Messenger homepage.
- Tap the three dots on the top-right corner.
- Click on “Archived chats”.
- Choose the chat you wish to view or unarchive.
Note: You can unarchive chats from this section by simply sending a message to the user. If not, choose the “Unarchive chat” option from the three dots menu on each chat window.
If I delete a conversation on Messenger, does the other person know?
If you delete a conversation on Messenger, the other person will not be notified that you have done so. Deleting a conversation is a private action that only affects your view of the conversation. The other person’s messages and conversation will remain on their Messenger app.
So they won’t know you have deleted the conversation from your end. Keep in mind that if you wish to hide a conversation without permanently deleting it, you can always choose to archive it instead.
Archiving moves the conversation out of your main inbox but keeps it accessible if you want to revisit it later.
Note: If you unsend a message by selecting “Unsend for everyone,” everyone in the chat will be able to see that you have unsent a message.
What happens when you delete a conversation on Messenger?
When you delete a conversation on Messenger, the following things happen:
Conversation removal
The entire conversation, including all messages, photos, videos, and other shared content, is removed from your Messenger app. So, when you delete a conversation on Messenger, does the other person know? The answer is no.
Recipients can still see the conversations
The other person or people involved in the conversation can still see the conversation on their Messenger app. Deleting the conversation only affects your account and does not delete it for the recipients.
No notification
If you think when you delete a conversation on Messenger, it deletes the other person, they will not be notified that you have deleted the conversation.
It is a private action that only affects your Messenger account.
No permanent deletion
While the conversation is removed from your view, it may still exist on Messenger’s servers for a limited time. Facebook may retain data for a certain period for system backups and other purposes.
So, if you want to know how to delete old messages on Messenger, you should archive the conversations.
Chat history loss
If you don’t archive the conversation before deleting it, you will lose access to the chat history and won’t be able to retrieve it.
Possible recovery
If you change your mind or accidentally delete the conversation, you may be able to recover it if you had previously archived it. Archiving moves the conversation to the “Archived Chats” section, making it accessible again.
FAQs on how to delete messages on Facebook Messenger
If you want to know how to delete Facebook messages, you can do so within the mobile or desktop apps by clicking on the three-dot menu and choosing ” delete.”
If you’ve archived the conversation, you can restore deleted messages. Otherwise, once deleted, messages are usually not recoverable.
No, deleting a message only removes it from your view. The recipient’s messages remain unaffected.
1 – Go to the conversation that contains the message you want to delete.
2 – Tap and hold the message you want to delete.
3 – Select “Delete.”
Yes, the recipient can still read the messages even if you delete them because you only delete them on your messages tab.
To delete someone from Messenger, simply open the conversation, tap their name, then select “Remove Contact” or “Block.”
To permanently delete Messenger messages from both sides, you must delete the conversation, but the other person will still have the messages unless they delete them too.
One common question that many users have is, “How can I see deleted messages on Messenger?” While Facebook Messenger does not allow users to view deleted messages, you may still be able to retrieve old messages through the archived chats section if they were archived instead of permanently deleted.
Leveraging Messenger with Birdeye
Now that you know how to delete chats on Messenger, it’s time to take some of the challenges out of managing your business’s Facebook messages and social media presence.
With Birdeye Social AI, you can automate your social media management processes and get more done in less time.
Here’s how Birdeye can help with your Facebook Messenger management:
- Automated responses: Birdeye’s AI-powered system can instantly respond to common customer queries on Facebook Messenger, whether it’s about your business hours, services, or promotions. This ensures you never miss an opportunity to engage with a potential customer.
- Message categorization: Birdeye categorizes messages based on content, such as sales inquiries, customer service requests, or general information, so you can prioritize responses efficiently. This streamlines your workflow and ensures your team focuses on the most important messages.
- Sentiment analysis: Birdeye’s AI analyzes the sentiment behind every message, helping you assess customer emotions and react accordingly. Whether you’re dealing with a happy customer or someone frustrated, Birdeye gives you insights on how to engage best.
- 24/7 availability: Birdeye ensures your business is always on, even when you’re not. With automated responses available around the clock, customers can always get the help or information they need, no matter the time of day.
- AI-driven follow-ups: After interacting with customers, Birdeye can send automated follow-up messages, reminding them about promotions or checking in on their satisfaction. This helps increase customer retention and conversions.
- Analytics and insights: Track your Facebook Messenger performance with Birdeye’s comprehensive analytics. You can make data-driven decisions to optimize your social media strategy, from response times to customer satisfaction ratings.
By leveraging Birdeye Social AI, your business can automate routine tasks, engage with customers more efficiently, and improve its overall social media strategy. Streamlining your Facebook Messenger communication helps ensure that every conversation is meaningful and productive.
Ready to see what all the hype is about? Watch a free demo today to get started!
About the Author
Sunitha Raghunathan
Originally published
