Delete Private Chat threads
This request is for the ability to completely delete a private chat thread. (Not hide/archive.)
Again, this was pulled out into its own topic because it is still under review and no decision has been made.
To recap what has already been completed from the other topic:
- Delete your own messages anywhere in Teams.
- Team Owners can choose if users can edit/delete in their tenant as well as choose if admins have the power to delete any message posted in public channels.
- The ability to hide your private chat threads (these are not the chat threads in channels, but the private chat threads that appear when you click the Chat icon on the left-side app bar).
- The ability to mute your private chat threads. (these are not the chat threads in channels, but the private chat threads that appear when you click the Chat icon on the left-side app bar).
This topic deserves consideration and separating out hot items is something we have often done. Please don't think of this as an attempt to diminish the ask, we know that many people want this.
Thank you for your understanding and feedback.
-Warren

Thank you for your votes and comments on this feature. The team is in the process of finalizing designs for deleting private chat threads. I will update as we have more progress to share.
1959 comments
-
Peter commented
I have raised this with O365 support - lots of apologies but no action.
I have direct messaged the Teams twitter account - no action.
I have asked the Teams twitter account if they even look at User voice - apparently they do actively review User Voice. - well this is clearly not true of this topic.
I am at a loss for where to go next on this most basic of privacy features, as all the official channels do not work.
-
Anonymous commented
Zoom can make this happen...why can't MS? It's Big Brother in action.
-
Anonymous commented
Is there any update on being able to delete chats? Using Teams more and more means that this is a vital setting!!
-
ressourcerie Lela commented
3 years and still nothing.. come on microsoft..
-
Olivier commented
Please proceed to provide to the user the ability to delete -1- the entire discussion, -2- many parts of the discussion, -3- one by one, part of the discussion.
People cannot understand why it is taking more than two years for Microsoft to decide on this functionality, to design and to develop.
-
Anonymous commented
Status?
-
Nick commented
In Skype I could easily delete the Chat history. Now that we switched to teams, I have to see Teams chat history for ever.
It's just MORE CLUTTER on my screen and creates a legal liability.
-
Anonymous commented
please add this feature we have old chat groups that need removing
-
Anonymous commented
Please add ability to delete chat threads
-
Hans commented
Are you using our data or what is the reason that the function is not available?
-
Anonymous commented
I work at school and we had a student send nude pictures to another which constitutes child ***********. We walked the student/family on how to delete the message themselves but the student has the ability to undo and the admin doesn't. This creates a potential liability issue that would be nice to overcome.
-
Anonymous commented
Now that schools are using this it needs to happen asap. We had a safeguarding disclosure in a channel and the ONLY way we could stop people from seeing the video was to move all the students to a new team, which means that they lost work etc.
-
Hannah commented
Surely this is within our GDPR rights to delete chats. Also take into account those who want to declutter their space especially with OCD.
-
Jason commented
This would be extremely helpful for old chats that are no longer needed.
Get calls daily on how to remove old chats and unclutter Teams panel...
-
Arunas commented
tired to wait!
-
Anonymous commented
Please action this asap. My team uses generic email addresses such as admin@ info@ etc. When a new staff member joins and an old one leaves, the new one can see the entire chat history from the previous person. This is unacceptable. I cannot understand why this is taking so long to implement. Obviously, this is an issue for a LOT of your users.
-
Anonymous commented
C'est pénible de ne pas pouvoir supprimer des conversations, surtout celles superflus en entreprise.
-
Leonardo Flores commented
I agree please please please add it
-
Brian Buckley commented
I honestly cannot believe this is even under discussion - it should be SELF EVIDENT Microsoft that if I realise I should not have posted something I should be able to IMMEDIATELY remove it without ANYONE knowing. OMG.
-
Casey Benefield commented
Guys..... I'm not concerned with private chat, so much as I am the regular Teams Posts, which.... as a Global Admin, Team Owner, with the proper policy implemented.... I CANNOT delete a post from an external guest, INTERMITTENTLY.....
Right now, support is saying that this is a FEATURE.... That's right, and that the delete option is in development... that it's pretty much in beta.... even though I am also part of another tenant, in Targeted Release, for a 50,000 licensed employee company..... where there is absolutely no problem....
This is an issue with MY two tenants, and honestly, Microsoft is making me second guess my use of Microsoft Office365 Enterprise on BOTH tenants.... and Google Apps Suite is quickly becoming a viable option.
It sounds like Microsoft is ignoring users, and tenant admins, because, of the THREE calls from support that I had, where they admitted something was wrong, not normal, only to pretend that they couldn't hear me, and they went silent, and dropped the calls. This was ALL from the same support team (not the Arizona team). We call that work avoidance where I work, and that would have been seen as an immediate corrective action.
So, just to be clear, one group of support people says, "it's not your imagination, something is wrong, and you've a right to be upset."
The other group says "It's normal for you to click on a delete button that we have made available to you, and for it to not work in a production version of Teams, and furthermore we will put non-production features in a production tenant for 50k users+ as well, without any feedback, thusly nothing you can do."
Not a good message....considering this worked for us, for over a year, without any issue... and now suddenly in 2021 it's a problem.
My organization is NOT a political one. It's about weather/disaster recovery. A nonprofit. We're not allowed to be engaged in politics. Is Microsoft more concerned about politics than customers now?