Old text messages piling up on your smartphone can be a huge pain. It makes things chaotic and also consumes valuable storage space. Today we will 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 SMS that have already expired. The auto-delete texts (SMS) process varies a bit depending on whether you’re using an Android or iOS device, but it’s equally easy on both platforms.
Auto Delete Text Messages (SMS) on Android and iPhone
While Apple offers a built-in option to delete old text messages (SMS) on iPhones, there is no such native option on Android. Instead, you’ll need to download a compatible messaging app from the Play Store to get the job done. Here we will use Google’s Hangouts app (free) on Android to automatically delete text messages (SMS) and keep your SMS inbox organized. The solution is far from ideal and you don’t have many customization options, but it’s still more useful than not having an auto-delete option.
How to Automatically Delete Text Messages (SMS) on Android
- Open Google Hangouts on your Android phone and tap the hamburger menu (three lines) in the upper left corner. From the slider, select . Settings.
- On the next page, select . ‘SMS’ It’s under general settings. If you are using a different default SMS app, you should set Hangouts as your default. Like this tap on SMS disabled to start.
- In the pop-up check box, select . ‘Yup’ Now turn on the toggle to set Hangouts as your default SMS app delete old messages. Your old texts (SMS) will now be automatically deleted when your storage is running low
Unfortunately, Hangouts doesn’t give you an option to control how long you want to save messages before deleting them. Also, Google will soon be deprecating 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 local OEM app limited to a single vendor) that does this, leave a comment below and we’ll update our article accordingly.
How to Automatically Delete Text Messages (SMS) on iPhone
- open on your iPhone Settings. Now scroll down and tap on Messages.
- On the next page, scroll down and tap on it. ‘Hide Messages’ It’s under the Message History section. Finally, choose from 30 days and 1 year depending on how long you want to keep old messages before getting rid of them. Old messages will be deleted immediately and you will need to confirm this action by tapping the ‘Delete’ button after selecting the auto-deletion period you want.
choose ‘Forever’ being on the last page will completely prevent the automatic deletion of text messages on your iPhone. While this helps preserve old SMS, after a while you may find that thousands of messages clog your phone.
Better Organize Your Text Inbox on Android and iPhone
While the auto-deletion process for text messages varies on Android and iPhone, you can do it on both platforms. However, the process is smoother on iPhone than Android and more customizable for a change. So go ahead, use this tutorial to set your iPhone or Android device to delete text messages automatically. In the meantime, you should also check out our article on how to automatically delete messages in Telegram and send lost messages on WhatsApp, Signal and Instagram.
