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
Warren
shared this idea
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.
1990 comments
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John H.
commented
I'm a relative newbie to MS Teams. One of my biggest needs is the ability to delete or hide individual chat messages. I have the ability to delete my own messages but not those of others. I'm asking because I want the ability to only see relevant information. I'd like your response to question: Does anyone out there have the ability to delete or hide another user's message? I'm wondering if the possibility exists, but my IT group has that capability turned off.
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Anonymous
commented
Totally spoils the aesthetic of the conversation thread as well as taking up space that isn't needed.
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Arun Kumar
commented
We are waiting for the option to delete one to one private chat conversation, i hope Microsoft team are working on it.
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Rob Nicholson
commented
And it took several hours to twig what they were trying to achieve. There is possibly too much documentation on this and I just wanted somebody to tell me succinctly what it was all about. You're right though, it's too complicated. All my client really want is SharePoint document libraries and a mailbox... you know, like that old site mailbox that worked just like email and not the cut-down conversation view in Office 365 groups
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Rob Nicholson
commented
I raised a ticket to look at Teams because over the concern of SFB EOL which my main Office 365 client has just about got their head around. I've worked in computers for more years than I want to recall but I just didn't get Teams. Okay, I get the idea of persistent chat and trying to bring everything into one place, but email is still critical for my clients - it's their primary tool for communication with pharma clients. These clients are NOT going to adopt instant messaging or persistent chat anytime soon so the only chance that teams will be adopted is by brining email into the Teams interface. So no, they didn't focus group it with the right people and just saw Slack and went "we need that". I'm not going to even mention it to my client for now :-(
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Anonymous
commented
Honestly that excuse is kinda nonsensical. Nobody would ask for a feature to permanently delete a chat from the backend. The issue is your application becomes unstable whenever a chat history gets too long. There are moments where the app is literally unusable because it is trying to load too many messages. I see you have attempted to do an easy fix for this by only loading a select amount of history, but this has been hit or miss.
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Julian Knight
commented
The excuses given about eDiscovery and unspecified "legal" reasons are specious in the extreme.
eDiscovery would be covered by the use of the standard "trash" facilities - putting the data into a hidden bin for a set amount of time. It would also be covered by the fact that you would only be deleting YOUR COPY of a conversation, it would be up to the other person to also delete their copy if you wanted it totally gone. This is absolutely standard.
Legal hold would cover all remaining legal requirements I would think.
What is more ridiculous is that you CAN delete INDIVIDUAL items in your own side of a conversation, but you cannot delete your copy of someone else's side of the conversation, nor can you delete a range of items.
What also isn't mentioned is data retention. Forcing data to be retained when it is no longer required or is no longer accurate is also against the law in many regions.
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Lidija
commented
Hiding a Chat is not the same as deleting it - there are tons of useless chats my users have to scroll through to get to what they want to see. I agree that not providing a Delete due to eDiscovery is a cop-out. Users would prefer to see a clean desktop.
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TDG
commented
Using desktop app - Without the ability to delete, we are forced to wade through numerous "test" chats. It shows the early ones on top so have to scroll. Can't delete & muting, mutes the whole contact. Very confusing & messy...will stick to S4B for now thanks :(
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Anonymous
commented
More specifically if someone accidentally posts a new conversation in a teams channel and then deletes it and posts a reply to an existing conversation instead the original thread still shows as a deleted thread, this dosent look clean it'd be nice if it's just removed entirely, and there is another tab where deleted threads can be recovered or something, if thats the reason a marker is left in the conversation tab.
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Rachel
commented
Is there any chance that this will be reviewed again. I find the eDiscovery comment to be a cop out. Why do we have the ability to delete emails or whole threads in a Team? There is a real need to drop the tread from a users view. Retention can do whatever retention wants to do on the back end per organization.
Please don't write this off as fixed.
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Instant Messenger Junkie
commented
I have about two hundred thousand lines of log in teams over some conversations with my cohorts. Is there a way to programmatically clean this out? Since it crashes systems when loading teams msgs
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Terry
commented
You have the ability to delete individual comments but not all!!!!!!
Cop out that is -
Anonymous
commented
It would be good if you could when you delete your message if people have commented they also get deleted. Also if you are an owner of the channel the ability to delete members messages would be useful
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Anon
commented
Not only could this get people in real trouble, it is also completely ridiculous. Private chat is private, I don't want my ex boss to read it. Not just my messages, but also those that my colleagues trusted me with.
(EU citizen here, do I really have to file a formal GDPR removal request?)
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Kris
commented
Ability to delete old conversations and status showing someone else currently typing a message.
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Anonymous
commented
This is ridiculous, In Skype for Business you can globally set not to capture any conversations. We have a legal requirement under the right to be forgotten in GDPR to remove information on request and indeed we have to justify why we are holding this information. I don't think saying we have no option because Microsoft say we can't delete it for "reasons" is going to cut it.
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A
commented
I dont really want to sit in a meeting sending a urgent query to a co-worker just showing the CEO of Contoso Ltd. how much we all love Gifs
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George
commented
Hiding isn't the same as deleting I want to delete conversations, same as I have always been able to do with Skype for Business and what is available in Slack. There is absolutely no reason to perpetually retain EVERY conversation indefinitely (Seriously , do we need to keep the conversation on where we go to lunch for a weekly team lunch?) This is nuts and frustrating the teams group is apparently deliberately ignoring this issue.
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Chang Liao
commented
I was told Slack support delete.
Problem solved.