How to Delete Teams Chat?

Being an ultimate messaging app, Microsoft Teams is expected to have all the useful features that other messaging apps offer. For instance, if you want to delete a message or an entire chat on Microsoft Teams, you should be able to do that. In this article, you’ll learn how to delete Teams chat easily.

How to Delete A Chat in Teams?

Microsoft Teams allows you to delete an individual message or an entire chat from one person. Whether you want to undo a message or declutter your Teams inbox, you can do that by simply deleting the chat – it is no big deal.

Microsoft offers this feature for both installed and browser versions.

A few things to remember here:

• When you delete a chat, the other person will still be able to see it.
• You can recover a deleted message if you haven’t permanently deleted it.
• It is impossible to recover a deleted message if you have permanently deleted it.
• If you had shared your location with someone, deleting their chat will result in the location stopping being sent.
• You can always start a new chat with the person whose chat you deleted.

With our step-by-step tutorial, you’ll learn how to delete chats in Microsoft Teams.

How to Delete Chat in Teams?

Follow these simple steps to delete an entire chat from one team member.

Step 1: Open Microsoft Teams.

Step 2: Your chats will appear on the left side of the screen. Click on the three dots next to the chat you want to delete.

Step 3: This menu bar will open. Click “Delete”.

Step 4: Microsoft Teams will ask for confirmation. Confirm by clicking on “Yes, delete”, and the chat will be deleted.

How to Delete A Single Chat Message You Sent in Microsoft Teams?

You learned how to delete an entire chat in Teams from one person. Now if you want to delete a single chat message you sent, follow these steps:

Step 1: The first step is similar to the previous one: open Microsoft Teams. Then open the chat and hover over the message you want to delete. Click on the three dots from the bar that appears.

If you’re using Teams on Android or iPhone, tap and hold the message you want to delete.

Step 2: Click “Delete”.

Step 3: The message will be successfully deleted.

How to Recover Deleted Chat in Teams?

What if you want to bring back the deleted message? Click on “Undo” and the message will appear again. The deleted message is recovered.

How to Delete All Chats in Microsoft Teams?

It is very easy to delete a single message and an entire message from one person. But how to delete all chats in Microsoft Teams? No worries, we also have a detailed guide for you. The only way to do it is via deleting Teams chat history as an administrator. You can follow the steps in the below part to delete all chats in Microsoft Teams.

How to Delete Teams Chat History Permanently? (For All Users Only)

Microsoft Teams allows administrators to delete all chats. If you can’t delete chat in teams permanently, don’t worry! We are going to teach you how you can delete all Teams chats as an administrator.

Follow these steps to delete Teams chat history.

Step 1: Log in to Microsoft 365 admin portal.

Step 2: You will see an option bar on the left side of the screen. Scroll down to find “Compliance”. Click on it. Microsoft Purview will open. You’ll notice there is no option to delete the chat history here.

Step 3: We can delete the chat history with the help of a retention policy. Click “Policies”.

Step 4: Click “Retention”.

Step 5: A data lifecycle management page will open up.

We need a retention policy that allows us to delete chat history. However, there is no such policy by default. So we will have to create a new retention policy. Click “New retention policy”.

Step 6: Microsoft 365 will take you through four steps asking for the details about the new retention policy you want to create. Please fill them out as shown in the image. Click “Next”.

Step 7: The next step is choosing the type of retention policy you want to create. Choose “Static” and click “Next”.

Step 8: Since we choose ‘Static’, Microsoft 365 will ask for locations in which you want to apply this policy. Scroll down and you’ll see that it’s Off for Teams chats. Turn it On.

Apply it for ‘All Users’ if you want to delete all chat history. If you want to delete selective chats, you can include or exclude users from the Edit option.

Confirm by clicking on Next.

Step 9: Next, decide if you want to retain content, delete it, or do both. By default, it is set to 7 years; which means that the chat history will not delete for 7 years. We want to change this.

Click on the “Only delete items when they reach a certain age” option. Then click ‘Next’.

Step 10: Instead of 7 years, we want to customize it. Click the drop-down list and choose “Custom”.

Step 11: It will ask you for the time period that you want the chats to be deleted. Fill in these options according to your choice.

Step 12: The final step is reviewing the policy. If you’re satisfied with it, click “Submit.”

Step 13: Voila! You successfully created a retention policy. Click ‘Done’.

Step 14: It will take you back to the Data Lifecycle management page. You will see your policy’s Status is Pending because it doesn’t take effect immediately. It usually takes about 4 to 7 days to imply.

When the policy is in effect, all your chats will be permanently deleted and you’ll receive a message that says something like, “We have deleted the older messages due to your retention policy”.

One thing to remember is that you can’t recover your chats once you’ve deleted them permanently.

Conclusion

Deleting a chat in Microsoft Teams is very simple and easy. Whether it’s your personal or business account, you can delete all chats without a problem!

Now that you know how to delete Teams chat, you can declutter your Microsoft Teams space to keep it organized.

You May Also Like

How to Use Microsoft Teams? The Complete Guide

30 Best Free Teams Virtual Backgrounds (Done Research For You)

How to Remove Out Of Office from Teams?