Clean Up Microsoft Teams: How To Delete a Chat

Businesses are increasingly relying on digital communications to help them operate. Many organizations have adopted either fully remote or hybrid work environments. This includes using the cloud and tools like Microsoft Teams to chat, have meetings and generally stay organized.

However, these unified communication platforms can quickly become overwhelming if they aren’t kept in good order. One of the first steps to clean up Microsoft Teams is to delete unneeded chats.

How To Clean Up Microsoft Teams by Deleting Chats

One of the simplest ways to make your Microsoft Teams app more organized is to delete some chats. These may be group chats that are no longer relevant to you or one-on-one chats with someone you no longer work with. Whatever your reasons for wanting to delete a chat, it is helpful to know the steps.

Before you do so, however, there are a few things you should know about what deleting a chat involves:

• Deletion Is Only for You: When you delete a chat, it will just delete it for you. The other participants in the chat will still be able to participate. If it is a one-on-one chat, the other participant will still be able to see the content of the chat.
• You’ll Show as Having Left: Other participants in the chat will know that you left it. However, they will not know that you deleted the chat.
• Only Some Accounts Can Delete: Personal and small business accounts can delete chats. Enterprise and educational accounts cannot (but they can hide chats).
• You Can Rejoin: If you are re-added to the chat, you will be able to see the history again. However, you won’t otherwise see the chat.

Deleting a Chat in the Desktop and Web Apps

Now that you know the impact of deleting a chat, learn how to do it. Fortunately, this is an extremely simple process.

For either the desktop or web apps, the process is more or less identical. Open the chat tab using the button on the left side of the screen. Find and select the chat you want to delete. When selected, chats have a menu that can be accessed by clicking the three dots on the right side. From this menu, select “Delete chat.” Finally, when the confirmation pop-up appears, select “Yes, delete.”

That’s all you need to do to remove one of your chats. If this option isn’t available, you likely are connected to an account that doesn’t allow deletion. In this case, you can hide the chat by using the same menu.

Deleting a Chat in the Mobile App

The process for chat deletion in the mobile app is similar. However, the way you reach the delete option is a little different.

First, open the chat tab by tapping the button at the bottom of the app. Find the chat you want to delete.

If you are using Android, tap and hold the chat to bring up the chat options menu. If you are using iOS, tap and swipe the chat to the left then tap the three-dot “More” button. With the menu open, select the delete option, then tap “Yes” when the confirmation window appears.

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Other Ways To Clean Up Microsoft Teams

Keeping your chats organized takes more than just deleting unwanted ones. Follow these extra tips to clean up Microsoft Teams and keep it lean and functional:

• Use Reactions: Rather than responding to a message, simply react to it. You can acknowledge a message or indicate your agreement easily using reactions. This is a great way to cut down on the number of messages in a chat channel.
• Use Mentions: Sometimes it is important to have a discussion within a group channel but you want to get a particular person’s attention. Using the @ symbol to mention people can be a good way to achieve this.
• Use Calls: It can sometimes be faster to cover a topic over a call rather than going back and forth in chat. You can quickly call your chat channel using Team’s built-in audio and video call functions.
• Filter Your Feed: Got too much content in your activity feed? Use the filter option to select which notifications you receive.

Discover More About Microsoft Teams and Office 365

Now that you know how to clean up Microsoft Teams, you are ready to more fully take advantage of the Office 365 suite. If you aren’t yet using the Microsoft Cloud, it may be time to think about migrating from your legacy systems

With unmatched next generation migration technology, Cloudficient is revolutionizing the way businesses retire legacy systems and transform their organization into the cloud. Our business constantly remains focused on client needs and creating product offerings that match them. We provide affordable services that are scalable, fast and seamless.

If you would like to learn more about how to bring Cloudficiency to your migration project, visit our website, or contact us.