Delete a message
Zulip lets you delete the content of your messages or delete messages completely
if these actions are allowed in your organization. Only server administrators
can restore deleted messages.
Organization administrators can
configure who can edit and delete
their own messages, and who can delete any message. They can also set time
limits on message editing and deletion.
Delete message content
Editing a message to delete its content will cause the message to be displayed
as (deleted). The original sender and timestamp of the message will still
be displayed, and the original content of the message is still accessible via
Zulip's edit history feature. This can be
the best option for avoiding confusion if other users have already responded to
your message.
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Hover over a message to reveal three icons on the right.
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Click the pencil () icon. If you do not see
the pencil () icon, you do not have
permission to delete the content of this message.
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Delete the content of the message.
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Click Save.
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Press and hold a message until the long-press menu appears.
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Tap Delete message to delete the content of the message. If you do not
see the Delete message option, you do not have permission to delete the
content of this message.
Delete a message completely
In some cases, such as when a message accidentally shares secret information, or
contains spam or abuse, it makes sense to delete a message completely. Deleted
messages will immediately disappear from the UI in all official Zulip clients.
Any uploaded files referenced only by deleted messages will be immediately
inaccessible. Note that an uploaded file shared in multiple messages will be
deleted only when all of those messages are deleted.
It's important to understand that anyone who received the message
before you deleted it could have made a copy of its content. Even if
no one is online when you send the message, users may have received
the message via email or mobile notifications. So if you
accidentally shared secret information that you can change, like a
password, you may want to change that password regardless of whether
you also delete the message.
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Hover over a message to reveal three icons on the right.
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Click on the ellipsis ().
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Select Delete message. If you do not see the Delete message option,
you do not have permission to delete this message completely.
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Approve by clicking Confirm.
You can delete messages sent by bots that you
own just like messages you sent yourself.
Restoring deleted messages
For protection against accidental or immediately regretted
deletions, messages deleted directly or via a message retention
policy are archived for 30 days in a
format that can be restored by a server administrator. After that
time, they are permanently and irrecoverably deleted from the Zulip
server. Server administrators can adjust the archival time using
the ARCHIVED_DATA_VACUUMING_DELAY_DAYS setting.
Message notifications
If you delete a message soon after sending it, any pending email
notifications
for that message will be canceled, and
visual desktop notifications will be removed,
including mentions and alerts.
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