How to Remove Contacts from Signal Contact List

Jan. 25, 2021

If you’ve recentlyswitched from WhatsApp to Signal, you might have noticed that deleting a contact from Signal isn’t as straightforward as you would expect. Unlike on otherchat apps like WhatsApp, deleting a contact from your phonebook doesn’t automatically deletes it from the Signal contact list. In case you’ve been wondering how to delete Signal contacts, here’s all you need to know to avoid unwanted interactions in thesecure messaging platform.

Remove Contacts from Signal Contact List

Before getting to the contact deletion part, it is important to understand how Signal handles your contacts.If you’ve saved the contact in your address book, you’ll see a contact icon next to the user name. Take a look at the image below to know how the contact appears when you’ve saved someone and when the contact is not in your address book.Signal saved vs Unsaved contact

If you’ve never texted the person you want to remove from Signal, deleting them from your Signal contact is easy. Instead of looking to delete the contact within Signal app, you shouldgo to your phone’s address book and remove the contact. You can quickly access the contact entry by tapping on the ‘This person in your contacts’ option on Signal’s contact page. After deleting the number,swipe up on Signal’s contacts page to refresh contacts. You’ll see that the number in question no longer appears on the list. It goes without saying that deleting the number from the address book removes the contact from other apps too.

In case you have a conversation history with the person you want to delete from Signal, removing the contact can get tricky.  Even if you delete their number from the address book, the person will appear in Signal’s contact list without the contact icon. To entirely remove the contact in such cases,you should block the person. You canexpand the contact page and tap on the Block buttonto block them. Alternatively, you can do this fromSettings -> Privacy -> Blocked users -> Add blocked user.

If you’re using Signal’s desktop app, you’ll notice that all your contacts are present in the left sidebar of the home page. To delete a contact, open the conversation window, click on the horizontal three dots present in the top right corner, and choose ‘Delete’. This way, the contact will disappear from the contacts list as long as you don’t get a new message from them.

So, that was our short guide to clear confusions when it comes to deleting contacts on Signal. If you still have any questions or doubts, feel free to reach out to us in the comments section below. While you’re at it, do not forget to check out thebest Signal featuresandSignal tips and tricksto use the app better.

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