Old text messages piling up in your smartphone can be a major pain. This makes things chaotic and consumes valuable storage space. So today we are going to show you how to automatically delete old text messages on Android and iOS. Following our tutorial will help you better organize your text messages by automatically deleting old text messages that have long outlived their usefulness. The automatic text (SMS) deletion process will vary slightly depending on whether you’re using an Android or iOS device, but it’s just as easy on either platform.
Automatic deletion of text messages (SMS) on Android and iPhone
Although Apple offers a built-in option to delete old text messages (SMS) in iPhones, this native option is not available on Android. Instead, you’ll need to download a compatible messaging app from the Play Store to get the job done. Here, we’ll be using Google’s Hangouts app (To free) on Android to automatically delete text (SMS) messages and keep your SMS inbox clutter-free. The solution is less than ideal and you don’t get a lot of customization options, but it’s still more useful than having no automatic deletion option at all.
Automatically delete text messages (SMS) on Android
- Open Google Hangouts on your Android phone and tap the hamburger menu (three lines) in the top left corner. In the sliding pane, select Settings.
- On the next page, select ‘SMS’ under General Settings. If you’re using another default SMS app, you’ll need to set Hangouts as your default app. Therefore Press on texting disabled to start.
- In the pop-up confirmation box, select ‘Yes’ to set Hangouts as the default SMS app. Now enable the toggle for Delete old messages. Your old texts (SMS) will now be automatically deleted when you run out of storage space
Unfortunately, Hangouts doesn’t give you an option to control how long you want to save messages before deleting them. Also, Google is soon dropping Hangouts in favor of Google Chat, so even this method may not work for very long. If you know of a universal Android app (not a single-vendor native OEM app) that does this, leave a comment below and we’ll update our article accordingly.
Automatically Delete Text Messages (SMS) on iPhone
- On your iPhone, open Settings. Now scroll down and tap posts.
- On the next page, scroll down and tap “Keep the Posts” in the Message History section. Finally, choose between 30 days and 1 year depending on how long you want to save old messages before getting rid of them. Older messages will be deleted immediately and you will need to confirm this action by pressing the “Delete” button after selecting the desired auto deletion duration.
Selection ‘Always’ on the last page will prevent automatic deletion of text messages on your iPhone for good. While this will help preserve old text messages, you might soon find thousands of messages clogging up your phone after a while.
Better Organize Your Text Inbox on Android and iPhone
Although the process of automatically deleting text messages varies on Android and iPhone, you can still do it on both platforms. However, the process is smoother, and for a change, more customizable on iPhone than Android. So go ahead, use this tutorial to set up your iPhone or Android device to automatically delete text messages. Meanwhile, you should also check out how to automatically delete messages on Telegram and see our article on sending disappearing messages on WhatsApp, Signal and Instagram.
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