How to Auto-Delete Messages on Telegram

Feb. 25, 2021

Telegram has recentlyreleased an updatethat brings the ability to auto-delete messages in personal chats, group chats, and channels. While the messaging app has long offered a self-destruct timer on secret chats, the new update brings a similar implementation of the feature to regular chats. Today, we’ll be taking a closer look at how you can use the feature on your device.

Auto-Delete Messages on Telegram

There’s a key difference in how the newly added auto-delete feature and secret chats work. Unlike secret chats,Telegram’s auto-delete timer starts when you send the message and not when the recipient reads it.Hence, it is possible that the message may expire before the recipient reads it. There are two timer durations to choose from – 24 hours and 7 days.

1. Open a Telegram chat, tap on the vertical three dots menu at the top-right corner, andchoose ‘Clear history.’Just below the ‘Clear history’ pop-up,you’ll now see a new ‘Auto-delete messages in this chat’ option.

2. Choose the auto-delete duration you prefer – 24 hours or 7 days andtap on the ‘Enable Auto-Delete’  button. Once enabled, new messages will self-destruct after the pre-defined duration. You can tap on a message to see its countdown to the deletion time.

The option to setup auto-deletion in group chats is limited to group admins. If you’re a group member, you’ll have to request the group admin to set it up for the group.

1. If you’re a group admin,open the Telegram group chat and tap on ‘Clear history.‘  From here,set the auto-delete durationunder the ‘Auto-delete messages in this chat’ section. Much like personal chats, the available durations are 24 hours and 7 days.

2. New messages sent in the group will now automatically expire. Notably,group members can’t see the countdown timers. You’ll have to be an admin to see the message expiry time of everyone.

So, that’s how you can auto-delete messages on Telegram. As mentioned earlier, you should keep in mind that the timer starts as soon as you send the message to avoid confusion. If you’re interested to use disappearing messages on other messaging platforms, check out our article onsending disappearing messages on WhatsApp, Signal, and Instagram. You can also find useful tips in our articles on thebest Telegram tips and tricks,sending anonymous messages, andhiding profile picture on Telegram.

Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.