You can delete your own Reddit messages, but the other person keeps their copy

When you delete a chat message on Reddit, it disappears from your inbox and your chat history. The person you sent it to still sees the message on their end — deletion only removes it from your account. Reddit does not offer a way to unsend messages or erase them from both sides of a conversation, the way some other platforms do.

This matters because anything you write in a Reddit chat is visible to the other person until they delete it themselves. If you want to remove something you said, deleting it from your view does not undo what they read or prevent them from taking a screenshot.

Key Takeaways

  • Deleting a Reddit chat removes the message only from your own inbox, not from the recipient's.
  • You can delete individual messages or entire conversations through your chat menu.
  • Once deleted from your account, you cannot recover the message — Reddit does not store a copy you can retrieve later.
  • The other person in the chat will still see the message unless they delete it from their own account.
  • Reddit does not notify the other person when you delete a message.

How to delete a single message from a chat

Open Reddit on your browser or the Reddit app. Go to your inbox by clicking the envelope icon at the top right (on desktop) or tapping the menu icon and selecting "Inbox" (on mobile).

Find the chat conversation that contains the message you want to delete. Click or tap on it to open the full conversation. Locate the specific message you want to remove. On desktop, hover your mouse over the message — a three-dot menu will appear on the right side. On mobile, press and hold the message until a menu pops up.

Click or tap the three dots and select "Delete" from the menu. The message will vanish from your chat history when ready. If you refresh the page or close and reopen the chat, the message will not reappear on your side.

How to delete an entire chat conversation

Open your Reddit inbox and find the conversation you want to remove. On desktop, hover over the conversation name in your chat list — a trash icon will appear on the right. Click it to delete the entire conversation. On mobile, swipe left on the conversation (iPhone) or press and hold it (Android) until a delete option appears, then confirm.

Deleting a conversation removes all messages in that chat from your inbox at once. This is faster than deleting messages one by one if you want to clear out old chats. Like individual message deletion, this only affects your account — the other person's copy of the conversation remains on their end.

What happens after you delete a message

Once deleted, the message is gone from your Reddit account permanently. You cannot undo the deletion or retrieve the text later. Reddit does not keep a backup of deleted messages that you can access.

The other person in the chat does not receive a notification that you deleted something. They will straightforward see that the message is no longer in your conversation if they look at the chat after you delete it — but only if they are looking at the same conversation at the same time. If they already read the message, they have the content in their memory or a screenshot, and deletion does not change that.

Why Reddit does not offer two-sided deletion

Many messaging platforms, including Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct Messages, let you unsend messages so both people lose access. Reddit's chat system does not work this way. The platform treats your deletion as a personal account action — removing content from your view — rather than a request to erase the message from the conversation itself.

This design choice means Reddit prioritizes the recipient's ability to see what was sent to them. Once a message reaches someone's inbox, they own that copy. You can only control what appears in your own account.

Things to know before deleting chats

If you are trying to remove evidence of a conversation, deletion will not work. The other person can still see, screenshot, or quote anything you sent. Deleting from your side creates a false sense of privacy that does not actually exist.

If you delete a conversation by mistake, there is no recovery option. Make sure you want to remove the chat before confirming deletion. If you only want to hide a conversation temporarily, you can mute it instead — muting keeps the messages but silences notifications, and you can unmute later.

Reddit does not delete chats automatically after a certain time period. Messages stay in your inbox until you manually remove them, even if they are years old.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I delete a message I sent to someone on Reddit?

Yes, you can delete any message you sent by opening the chat, hovering or holding on the message, and selecting delete. The message disappears from your inbox when ready. The other person will still see it unless they delete it themselves.

Does the other person know when I delete a message?

No, Reddit does not send a notification when you delete a message. The other person will not be alerted. They will only notice the message is gone if they look at the conversation after you delete it.

Can I delete a message after a long time has passed?

Yes, you can delete messages no matter how old they are. Reddit does not limit deletion to recent messages. If a chat is years old, you can still remove individual messages or the entire conversation from your account.

What is the difference between deleting a message and deleting a conversation?

Deleting a single message removes just that one text from the chat. Deleting a conversation removes all messages between you and that person at once. Both actions only affect your account, not the other person's.

If I delete a conversation, can I see the messages again later?

No, once you delete a conversation, those messages are gone from your account permanently. You cannot recover them. If you need to reference something from that chat, you would have to ask the other person to share the message again.