How to Delete Instagram Messages from Both Sides?

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Written by: Alex Popa

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How to Delete Instagram Messages from Both Sides?

Wanna delete Instagram messages from both sides, right? Well, you can only delete your OWN messages, not the other person’s.

There’s no way to delete someone else’s message. You can only report it.

Either way, take a look below to see how you can do that:

  1. Open the chat with your friend
  2. Hold-tap on your message
  3. Select “Unsend
  4. Confirm by selecting “Unsend

If you need a detailed guide on how to delete Instagram messages on both sides, keep reading!

Summary: In this article, I explain how to delete your own messages on Instagram from both sides. 

I provide a step-by-step guide on how to do this by opening the chat with your friend, holding-tapping on your message, selecting “Unsend,” and confirming the action. 

I also clarify that it’s not possible to delete someone else’s message and warn against using apps or services that claim to do so.

1. Open your chats

Instagram feed showing the "Chats" icon highlighted in the top-right corner
Instagram feed showing the “Chats” icon highlighted in the top-right corner.

The first step is accessing your friend’s chat where you sent the compromising message. Select the “Chats” icon in the top-right corner to do that (check the image above for more info).

2. Open the chat with your friend

Instagram Chats page where a friend's chat is highlighted in red
Instagram Chats page where a friend’s chat is highlighted in red

After you open the Chats page, find your friend’s chat and open it. If you can’t find it, use the search bar at the top and type in their name or the message you sent.

Once you find the chat, select it!

3. Hold-tap on the message

Instagram chat page showing a self-sent message highlighted in red
Instagram chat page showing a self-sent message highlighted in red

After you open your friend’s chat, you need to find the message you sent and hold-tap on it. Scroll through the chat page until you find it (it’s right there).

4. Select “Unsend message

Instagram chats page showing a notification where the "Unsend message" option is highlighted in red
Instagram chats page showing a notification where the “Unsend message” option is highlighted in red

Once you hold-tap on your message, a notification window will open where you’ll find three options:

  • Unsend message
  • Copy text
  • Like

Select “Unsend message” to delete your message for both parts.

5. Select “Unsend” again

Instagram notification window where the "Unsend" option is highlighted in red
Instagram notification window where the “Unsend” option is highlighted in red

Instagram will ask you to confirm that you want to unsend your message. This action is irreversible, so you won’t be able to retrieve your message.

As you can see, unsending the message will delete it for everyone in the chat window. However, if someone has already seen or forwarded it, it’s too late to delete it.

Confirm by selecting “Unsend,” and you’re done.

Since you can’t delete others’ messages from both sides, this guide ends here. Don’t even think about using apps and services that promise to help you delete others’ messages permanently.

There are no such things. That would mean messing with Instagram’s database, which is impossible unless you hack the platform, which is illegal.

Don’t trust those services and programs!

Contact me below for any questions or issues and I’ll give it my best to help you.

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Alex Popa

My name is Alex and I have a knack for social media in all its shapes and forms. I’ve dealt with such things for quite some time and I noticed that many people have issues with social media and technicalities.

Unforeseen errors, bugs, and other problems make their use of social media problematic. These things will be discussed amply in the guides on Whizcase.

I'll present the facts as they are, and offer quick and easy solutions for them.

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