If you would like to edit the conversations or messages on your Instagram app, you might be interested to know that the development team at Meta provides an easy way for you to delete a message from Instagram Direct. If you are looking to clean your account and remove those unwanted conversations, you will be pleased that this quick guide will take you through deleting all your unwanted Instagram Direct messages.
How to delete a conversation on Instagram Direct
Whether you are on iOS or Android, simply open the Instagram app on your phone or tablet and follow the instructions below
1. While in the Instagram app, select the paper plane or Messenger icon symbol in the top right-hand corner of your feed.
2. This will provide a list of all your conversations held within Instagram Direct
3. On iOS and iPhone devices, simply swipe left on the conversation that you would like to delete and Meta will magically remove it from your feed.
4. On Android devices, simply tap and hold down your finger on the conversation you would like to delete to remove it.
5. The application will then ask you to confirm your choice by tapping Delete.
Once you have deleted your unwanted messages and conversations from Instagram Direct, they will no longer be visible in your inbox. However, they will still be available to other Instagram users and people that were included in the conversation. It is also worth remembering that your data download file does not include messages that you have unsent or conversations that you have deleted from your Instagram account.
Delete a message on Instagram
If you would like to unsend or delete a message, you have sent using Instagram Direct, follow the instructions below.
1. Enter the Instagram app and select the icon for the feed in the top right-hand corner of your screen. Normally a paper plane or Messenger icon.
2. Once again, select the conversation, which includes the message you would like to delete.
3. Go to the message that you would like to delete or unsend
4. Tap and hold the message to reveal the Unsend option
5. Confirm that you would like to Unsend the message when asked.
Do not forget that although you are deleting or rather unsending the message, other people in the conversation may have already read it. Once you have deleted the message, it will no longer be visible to people to see included in the conversation.
Unfortunately, Facebook, or rather Meta, does not provide a way to delete multiple conversations at once or multiple messages within the Instagram application. So you will need to repeat the processes listed above for each message or conversation you would like to delete from the application.
If you have a huge amount of messages or conversations to delete from Instagram Direct, there are third-party applications and services that are available to automate the process, but those are for another article at a later date. For now, quickly Google “automating actions on your phone” will list recent applications although more are available for Android than iOS because of Apple’s restrictive terms and conditions that stop developers from carrying out certain actions from within their apps.
If you are still struggling with how to delete messages or conversations from your Instagram app and would like to communicate directly with the Instagram support team jump over to the official help centre.