Despite my various attempts to get people to use Signal, I am still deeply entrenched with chatting on WhatsApp. Everyone I know is addicted to using it, so I find myself using it heavily too on a daily basis. The downside to using it a lot every day though is that the interface starts to get cluttered very fast, which is why you need to make archiving or deleting each WhatsApp chat thread a regular habit.
Of course, if clutter is your thing, then by all means leave it as it is. But if tidiness and minimalism is what calms you, then read on. This is easier than you may think.
In case you’re wondering, there is a big difference between archiving and deleting. Just so I don’t get blamed for you accidentally losing all of your sexting messages, this is worth pointing out. It is also worth a brief explanation for privacy reasons, if you want to conceal personal and private conversations.
Archiving & Deleting On The WhatsApp Desktop App & Web Apps
To the right of the contact on the left-hand side is a downwards arrow. Clicking that drops a small menu.
If you then click “Archive chat“, the entire message thread instantly disappears from the interface. You are not asked to confirm first. But as I said, it’s easy to bring it back. Just type in the person’s name in the “Search or start new chat” search box at the top and the message thread will appear again on the right-hand side.
Click “DELETE” to confirm, or “CANCEL” to change your mind and exit.
Similarly, archiving and deleting on the mobile apps is also easy. Here is the iOS method but the Android method will be the same.
To delete the conversation thread, tap “More“. This brings up this menu.
Tap “Delete Chat“, confirm, and it will be gone down the rabbit hole forever.
Being a Facebook-owned company, you never know how gone-gone your conversations really are. I mean, Facebook’s entire business model is built on collecting peoples data. So a cynical part of you may be wondering if the data really is gone, or only pretending to be gone.