Written by Ivana Kotorchevikj Social Media / Snapchat
Snapchat offers the highest level of privacy to users when sending messages. Chats and Snaps are automatically deleted when they’ve been viewed or when they expire.
Even with disappearing messages, it may have happened that you sent a message or Snap to someone that you wish you hadn’t sent in the first place. Hence, now you are wondering if it’s possible to delete it without having to wait for the recipients to see it.
We have good news for you. Even though you can’t unsend a snap, you can delete it before it’s even been opened.
There’s no 100% guarantee that the person won’t see it. Nevertheless, it’s worth the try.
This blog post will guide you through the steps on how to delete a Snap from the Snapchat servers and your chat.
Note: The steps are applicable for both iOS and Android devices, but the screenshots below are taken from an Android.
First, make sure that the user hasn’t already seen the Snap. If the sent Snap says ‘Delivered’, it means that the person has not opened it yet. However, if you see ‘Opened’ under the user’s name in Chats, it means that the person has already opened the snap.
Important note: If you tap on the ‘Learn more’ button below ‘Delete’, Snapchat notes that they will do their best to remove it from your friends’ device, but there’s no 100% guarantee that deleting the message will work depending on several circumstances, for example, if the person has a bad internet connection or an older version of the app.
You can also delete text messages in the chat if you press and hold on the text message and tap on 'Delete'.
In previous versions of the Snapchat app, users discovered several tricks that sometimes worked for unsending snaps.
These tricks don’t work anymore with recent versions of the app because when you send a Snap, it’s automatically uploaded to Snapchat's cloud-based system. Also, when a recipient sees a Snap, it’s deleted from Snapchat servers. Therefore, any actions you try to do to the Snap you’ve sent won’t work because it’s already in the cloud.
Apart from deleting Snaps, you can also delete a photo or video snap from My Story.
You can also delete entire conversations on Snapchat with the Clear Chat feature.
Note: Clear Chats is different from Clear Snapchat Conversations, which simply deletes your recent friend and group chat from your Conversations tab on your phone and not from other users’ accounts.
Also, you can delete the following content from the chat: texts, stickers (including Bitmoji stickers), audio messages and photos and videos sent from the Memories tab (those that were saved or uploaded from your device).
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