What Happens When You Clear Chat on WhatsApp?

Quick Tips

• Clearing a chat only removes the messages from your phone. The other person(s) in the conversation will still see the chat history.
• You can choose to delete media (photos, videos) associated with the chat from your phone’s storage as well.
• Clearing a chat won’t notify the other person or remove them from a group chat.

Consequences of Clearing Chat on WhatsApp

• All messages within the cleared chat are deleted from your device. You will no longer be able to see the conversation history for that chat.
• If new messages are received after you clear the chat, you will get notifications for them as usual, and they will appear in the chat when you open it.
• Clearing the chat will not delete media files that have been downloaded and saved to your device’s gallery. However, the chat window will remove media that was not downloaded (or not set to download automatically).
• Cleared messages will no longer appear in search results within WhatsApp.

Differences between Clear Chat and Delete Chat

When you clear a chat on WhatsApp, it deletes all the messages from the conversation. However, you can still see the main page’s chat thread (it remains empty until you receive or send a new message).

When you delete a chat thread, WhatsApp removes all the messages and threads from the home page. You must go to the contacts menu to compose a new message.

How to Clear Chat on WhatsApp

On Android

Step 1: Open WhatsApp on your Android phone.

Step 2: Select a chat and tap the three-dot menu in the top right corner.

Step 3: Click More and tap Clear chat.

Step 4: In the confirmation pop-up, tap Clear Chat.

WhatsApp for Android also lets you delete media received in the chat from the device gallery. It’s a handy trick to delete all the unnecessary photos and videos from your phone’s storage.

On iOS

Step 1: Launch WhatsApp on your iPhone.

Step 2: When you come across an irrelevant chat, swipe left on it.

Step 3: Tap More and select Clear Chat.

Step 4: Confirm the same.

You can clear chat from the contact info menu too, continue reading.

Step 1: Open any conversation on WhatsApp.

Step 2: Tap the contact name at the top.

Step 3: Scroll to Clear Chat and delete all messages.

Also Read: How to delete, deactivate, or exit WhatsApp Community

On Desktop

The steps are the same for both Windows and Mac. However, for demonstration purposes, we are using Windows.

Step 1: Open WhatsApp on your Windows desktop.

Step 2: Right-click on a chat you want to clear and choose Clear messages.

Note: For Mac, right-click on the chat > choose More > Clear chat.

Step 3: In the pop-up, click Confirm.

That’s it. The selected chat will be cleared from your WhatsApp chats section. If you have any queries, check out the FAQ section below.

FAQs on Clearing Chat on WhatsApp

Before you delete several conversations from WhatsApp, it’s important to understand the implications. If a specific account spams you with messages, consider blocking the account.