How to Auto-Delete Text Messages (SMS) on Android and iPhone

Mar. 26, 2021

Old text messages piling up in your smartphone can be a major pain. It makes things chaotic, as well as eats up precious storage space. So today, we will show you how to auto-delete oldtext messages on Androidand iOS. Following our tutorial will help you better organize your text messages by automatically deleting old SMSes that have long outlived their utility. The process of auto-deleting texts (SMS) will vary slightly based on whether you’re using an Android or iOS device but is equally easy on either platform.

Auto-Delete Text Messages (SMS) on Android and iPhone

While Apple offers a built-in option to delete old text messages (SMS) in iPhones, there’s no such native option available on Android. Instead, you will have to download a compatible messaging app from the Play Store to get the job done. Here, we will use Google’s Hangouts app (Free) on Android to auto-delete text messages (SMS) and keep your SMS inbox clutter-free. The solution is far from ideal, and you don’t get many customization options, but it’s still more useful than not having an auto-deletion option at all.

Unfortunately, Hangouts doesn’t offer you an option to control how long you want to save messages before deleting them. What’s more, Google is alsodeprecating Hangouts in favor of Google Chatsoon, so even this method may not work for very long. If you know of a universal Android app (not a native OEM app restricted to a single vendor) that does this, leave a comment down below, and we’ll update our article accordingly.

Selecting‘Forever’on the last page will prevent auto-deleting text messages on your iPhone for good. While that will help preserve old SMSes, you might soon find thousands of messages clogging up your phone after a while.

While the process of auto-deleting text messages varies on Android and iPhone, you can do it on both platforms nonetheless. However, the process is smoother, and for a change, more customizable on iPhone than Android. So go ahead, use this tutorial to set your iPhone or Android device to automatically delete text messages. While at it, you should also check out how toauto-delete messages on Telegramand check out our article on sendingdisappearing messages on WhatsApp, Signal, and Instagram.

Passionate techie. Professional tech writer. Proud geek.