How to Delete a Chat in Telegram for Yourself and the Other Person

To remove a conversation, press and hold the chat in your list (on a computer, right-click it) and choose Delete Chat. In one-on-one conversations Telegram also offers an Also delete for… checkbox — tick it and the conversation disappears on the other person's side too, with no time limit on how old the messages are.

What follows are the details that usually raise questions: how deleting differs from clearing history, what happens with groups and channels, whether anything can be recovered, and how to set up auto-deletion so you don't have to clean up by hand.

Delete for yourself or for both: the difference

Telegram offers two distinct actions, and their consequences differ.

• Deleting for yourself only. The chat disappears from your list and from your account's cloud storage — on all your devices at once. The other person keeps the conversation in full.
• Deleting for both. The checkbox wipes the history on the other side as well. They get no notification — the chat simply vanishes or empties out.

In private conversations, deleting messages on both sides isn't limited by time: you can remove yesterday's exchange or one from years ago. Groups follow stricter rules — more on that below.

How to delete a chat on Android

1. Open your chat list.
2. Press and hold the conversation until it's selected.
3. Tap the bin icon in the top bar, or pick the delete option in the three-dot menu.
4. Tick Also delete for… if you need to.
5. Confirm.

A long press also lets you select several conversations at once and delete them in a single action — handy for a one-off clean-up of the list.

How to delete a chat on iPhone

1. In the chat list, swipe the conversation from right to left.
2. Tap the red Delete button.
3. Choose whether to delete it for yourself only or for both participants.

A long press on the chat gives the same result — a context menu with the delete option appears.

How to delete a chat on desktop and web

In the app for Windows, macOS and Linux, as well as in the browser version, right-click the conversation and choose Delete Chat. The dialog that opens contains the same option for deleting on the other person's side.

Changes sync across all your devices, so there's no need to delete the conversation again on your phone.

How to delete individual messages

When you don't want to remove the whole conversation, work selectively:

1. Press and hold a message (right-click on a computer).
2. Select one or several messages.
3. Choose Delete and specify whether to remove them for yourself only or for everyone.

Both options are available in private chats. In groups you can always delete your own messages for everyone, but other people's only if you have admin rights that include message deletion.

Clear history instead of deleting the chat

If you want to keep the conversation but not its contents, open the chat, tap the person's name at the top and choose Clear History. The messages disappear while the chat stays in your list. This option has the same both-sides checkbox.

There's another route for anyone who simply wants a shorter list: the archive. Swiping a chat and choosing to archive it moves the conversation out of sight while keeping every message.

Groups, channels and bots

The mechanics here differ from private conversations:

• Groups. The Delete and Leave option removes the chat from your list and takes you out of the member list. The group itself carries on, and your past messages stay visible to everyone else. Only the owner can delete a group for all members, through the group settings.
• Channels. A subscriber can only unsubscribe, which removes the channel from their list. The owner deletes the channel in its settings, and the content then disappears for every subscriber.
• Bots. Deleting a chat with a bot is best combined with stopping and blocking it — otherwise it can message you again. Revoking the permissions you granted a bot is done separately, in the privacy section.
• Saved Messages. It's a chat like any other: you can clear or delete it, and the files stored there disappear from the cloud with it.

Secret chats

A secret chat is stored on the participants' devices rather than in the cloud. Deleting it automatically ends the conversation for both sides — there's no "just for me" option. If you uninstall the app or log out of your account, secret chats go too: they can't be restored from the cloud, because they were never there.

Auto-deletion instead of manual clean-up

Telegram can erase messages on a timer. Open the chat, tap the person's name, find the auto-delete option and pick a period — typically one day, one week or one month. From then on, messages disappear on their own for both participants.

The timer is set per conversation, and any change to it is visible to the other side: there's no way to enable auto-deletion secretly.

Can a deleted chat be recovered?

No. Telegram has no recycle bin, no archive of deleted items and no few-minute undo: once you confirm the deletion, the data is wiped from your account's cloud. Support doesn't restore conversations either.

There's one scenario where something survives: if you deleted the chat for yourself only, the history stays with the other person and they can forward the messages back to you. That's why it's worth forwarding important documents, codes and files to Saved Messages or downloading them before a clean-up. Keep in mind, too, that deleting for both sides does nothing about screenshots or files already downloaded on someone else's device.

When clearing chats isn't the real fix

Constantly deleting conversations often means one profile has become a mix of personal chatting, work and project tasks. Separating them works better through separate accounts than through housekeeping: Telegram lets you keep several accounts in one app and switch between them in a couple of taps. If you need a profile for work and have no spare number on hand, ready-made Telegram accounts cover that.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting the "Also delete for…" checkbox. The chat disappears only for you, while the other person keeps everything.
• Confusing deleting a chat with leaving a group. Leaving doesn't erase your messages for the remaining members.
• Deleting a conversation without saving the attachments. Cloud-stored files and photos go with it.
• Assuming deletion hides everything. Screenshots, forwarded messages and downloaded files stay outside your control.
• Looking for deleted chats in the archive. The archive only holds conversations you moved there yourself.

FAQ

Will the other person know I deleted the conversation?

Telegram sends no special notification. But if you deleted the messages for both sides, the missing chat or empty history will be noticeable.

Is there a deadline after which I can't delete a message for everyone?

In private chats there's no time limit — messages of any age can be removed. In groups it depends on your rights and the community's settings.

Will the chat be deleted on my other devices?

Yes. Regular chats live in the cloud, so the change applies to your phone, tablet and computer at the same time.

How do I delete all my chats at once?

There's no dedicated button for it. On Android you can select several conversations with a long press; in other versions you'll have to delete them one by one. Only deleting your account clears everything.

Will the contact disappear after I delete the chat?

No — a chat and a contact are different things. The person stays in your contacts and isn't blocked.

What happens to files and photos after deletion?

They're removed from the cloud along with the conversation. Copies you previously saved to your gallery or drive stay on your device.

Does deleting chats free up phone storage?

Partly. Local storage is taken up by the cache, which you clear separately in the data and storage settings.

Can I delete a chat if the other person blocked me?

Yes, the conversation is removed from your list as usual. Erasing the messages on their side, however, is no longer possible after a block.

In short

Deleting a chat in Telegram takes seconds: a long press or swipe, the delete option, and the checkbox for the other side if you need it. Two things matter most — the action can't be undone, so save anything important first, and it behaves differently in private chats, groups and channels. If you find yourself clearing the list constantly, an auto-delete timer or separate accounts for separate parts of your life is the simpler answer.