Sometimes during online social media communications, conversations or messages are sometimes written that you would prefer to forget or if possible delete permanently from your account. If you have been using Facebook’s Instagram app and would like to edit conversations or delete Instagram messages. You might be interested to know that the development team at Meta previously known as Facebook provides an easy way for you to delete a message from the Instagram Direct app.
Whether you are on iOS or Android, simply open the Instagram app on your phone or tablet and follow the instructions below to delete your conversations and Instagram messages. If you are looking to clean your account and remove those unwanted conversations, this quick guide will take you through the process of removing and permanently deleting your Instagram messages.
Delete Instagram conversations
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
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 or messages you would like to delete.
5. The application will then ask you to confirm your choice by tapping Delete.
Once you have deleted messages that are unwanted 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.
How to delete Instagram messages
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 messages 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 Instagram 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.
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