When you delete messages on Apple Watch, you can free up storage space. Removing unwanted or spam messages also makes space for important conversations in the Messages app. This tutorial will show you how to delete messages on your Apple Watch.
The steps below apply to all Apple Watch models/generations running watchOS 5 or newer.
How to Delete Messages on Your Apple Watch
watchOS doesn’t support deleting individual messages in a conversation. You can only delete an entire conversation in the Messages app on Apple Watches.
How to Delete Conversations on Apple Watch
- Open the Messages app on your Apple Watch and locate the conversation you want to delete.
- Swipe left on the conversation and tap the Trash icon.
- Tap Delete on the confirmation screen to proceed.
Pro Tip: Go to Settings > General > Storage to see how much storage the Messages app consumes on your Apple Watch.
Unlike iOS, you can’t delete multiple conversations simultaneously. Also, deleted messages/conversations aren’t deleted on your paired iPhone.
Although your Apple Watch and iPhone synchronize sent and received messages, neither device syncs deleted conversations/messages. When you delete a conversation on your Apple Watch, it remains accessible on your iPhone. Similarly, messages or conversations deleted on your iPhone remain on your Apple Watch.
There’s currently no way to simultaneously delete the same message or conversation from your Apple Watch and iPhone. You must delete them on both devices separately. See our tutorial on deleting and backing up iPhone messages to delete text and iMessage conversations on your iPhone.
Interestingly, muting a conversation on your Apple Watch also mutes the same conversation in Messages on your iPhone—and vice versa.
Swipe left on any conversation in the Message app on your Apple Watch and tap the crossed-out Bell icon. To unmute the conversation, swipe left again and tap the Bell icon.
Look Before You Leap
iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers have a “Recently Deleted” folder for recovering deleted messages and conversations. watchOS doesn’t have this folder. Hence, conversations deleted on your Apple Watch are permanently erased from the smartwatch. However, you can still access them in the Messages app on your iPhone and Apple devices.
