Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google Messages seems to have started rolling out the “Delete for Everyone” option in group chats for beta users.
- The feature allows users to delete messages sent to everyone in the group.
- It’s unclear if the feature is also headed to individual chats on Google Messages.
Google appears to be rolling out its long-awaited “Delete for Everyone” feature in Google Messages, allowing beta users to remove RCS (Rich Communication Services) chats from group conversations. This suggests a wider release for the feature could be right around the corner.
We previously found strings referencing two new deletion options: “Delete for everyone,” which removes the message for all participants in a conversation, and “Delete for me,” which only deletes the message from the user’s device. Now, a Reddit user in the public beta has confirmed that these options are live for at least one of their large RCS group chats.
“I have only found one group where it works… It’s a big group of 12 people,” the user noted. “But none of my other RCS groups allow me to do it… and I have yet to find a 1:1 convo that allows me yet,” they said.
This beta rollout for the “Delete for Everyone” suggests that Google is perhaps testing the waters, enabling the feature selectively across group sizes or user types. Although 1:1 conversations do not yet appear to support message deletion for both parties, the existence of the option is a strong signal that full support may be on the horizon.
In our teardown, we had also discovered that Google Messages seems to notify recipients when a sender deletes or attempts to delete a message. It’s unclear right now if this is how the feature functions. This additional transparency may be helpful or controversial, depending on how users feel about their privacy.
While Google has not officially announced when the feature will be widely available, it looks like we won’t have to wait long.
