One cool thing about Apple Watch is being able to read and reply to text messages without checking your connected iPhone constantly. However, Apple Watches stores messages on the device, so texts, images, gifs, or videos can quickly add up over time. With only as much as 32GB in storage capacity, you may need to delete some of your messages to free up storage space. Regularly deleting old messages will also help you keep track of the conversations that matter. This can be tricky for some, but our convenient guide has you covered! Keep reading to learn how to delete messages on your Apple Watch in five steps!
First, press the digital crown to go to the home screen. You can see all the apps on your Apple Watch from the home screen.
Step 2: Open the Messages App on Your Apple Watch
Next, locate the Messages app on your home screen and tap the icon to open it. Alternatively, you can ask Siri to open the Messages app.
Step 3: Scroll Down to the Messages You Want to Delete
Third, turn the digital crown or scroll down the list of senders until you find the messages you want to delete.
Step 4: Swipe Left on the Messages You Want to Delete
(Image 4: caption: Tap the red trash can to delete.)
Swipe left on the messages you want to delete. This will bring up two options. The purple option on the left is a bell icon. Tap on the bell icon to enable or disable notifications for that sender. This may be handy if you are busy and want to stop notifications briefly without deleting the conversation. The red option on the right is a trash can icon. Tap on the red trash can icon to delete the messages.
Step 5: Confirm Deletion
When you tap the trash can icon, the following message will appear: “Would you like to delete this conversation?” Tap “delete” to permanently remove messages from your Apple Watch. Note that you are not just deleting a single message when you confirm the deletion. This action deletes the entire conversation with that sender. Now, there is no way to delete a single message on Apple Watch. To delete messages from more than one sender, repeat steps 2-4 until you have deleted each sender’s conversation.
Now that you know how to delete messages from your Apple Watch, here are a few other important facts that may be helpful.
Messages Are Not Synced Between Apple Watch and iPhone
Even if you have enabled the “Mirror iPhone” setting on your iPhone to sync with your Apple Watch, there are limitations. Although receiving messages and notifications are synced between the Apple Watch and your connected iPhone, deleted messages are not. When you delete a conversation from your Apple Watch, those messages will remain on your iPhone. Likewise, if you delete a conversation from your iPhone, the messages will remain on your watch. This can become confusing if you have multiple devices, so it is important to periodically go through and manually delete messages from your Apple Watch.
You can also easily delete message notifications on your Apple Watch. Swipe down from the top of the watch face, then turn the digital crown or scroll to the top of the notifications. Click on “Clear All” to remove all notifications. To delete a single message notification, scroll to the one you want to remove. Swipe left, then tap on the “x” to remove that notification. Unlike messages, when you dismiss message notifications on your watch, it will also dismiss message notifications on your iPhone.
Messages Will Delete Automatically After 30 Days
Messages are only stored on your Apple Watch for 30 days. After 30 days, all messages on your Apple Watch will be automatically deleted. Users are unable to change this setting. If you need to locate messages automatically deleted from your Apple Watch, they will remain on your connected iPhone until you manually delete them.
You Cannot Bulk Delete Messages
While this is undoubtedly a useful feature on other Apple devices, Apple Watch does not support bulk deletion of messages. You can delete entire conversations from a sender by following the above steps.
Can I Recover Deleted Messages?
What do you do if you accidentally delete a conversation from your Apple Watch? Don’t worry. The silver lining of message deletion not syncing between devices is those deleted messages will still be available on your connected iPhone. Even if you have deleted your messages from both Apple Watch and iPhone, you may still be able to restore your messages. If you have a device running iOS 16, you can recover recently deleted messages for up to 30 days. To recover your messages, open the Messages app on your iPhone. Then tap “Edit” in the top left-hand corner. Select “Show Recently Deleted” from the menu. Finally, you can choose which messages you want to recover, but note that the recovered messages will not re-sync to your Apple Watch.
Hopefully, this guide has helped you learn how to delete messages on your Apple Watch. Now you have to decide what to do with all that storage space you opened up! Why not check out some new apps or try a few music streaming apps for your Apple Watch? Whatever you decide, it will be easier to get more out of your Apple Watch now that you know how to delete the messages you no longer need.
