Microsoft Teams will finally let you delete private chats, but you'll probably have to wait

Microsoft Teams Note20 On Keyboard
Microsoft Teams Note20 On Keyboard (Image credit: Future)

What you need to know

  • Microsoft Teams will have an option to delete a private chat thread in the future.
  • Right now, you can delete individual messages or hide or archive private chat threads.
  • The option has almost 20,000 upvotes on a UserVoice thread.

Microsoft has finally agreed to roll out a highly-requested feature to Microsoft Teams, the ability to delete private chat threads. At the moment, you can delete individual messages or hide or archive threads, but there's no option to completely delete a thread of private messages. That's going to change, according to a Microsoft engineer's response to a UserVoice post.

Alex from the Microsoft Teams engineering team responded to the request:

Thank you for your feedback! The team has finalized the designs for this feature request, and work is planned to begin shortly. We will share an update as soon as one is available.

The ability to delete private chat threads has received a shocking amount of upvotes. At the time of publication, almost 20,000 people have expressed their desire to delete private chat threads.

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Microsoft hasn't committed to any timeframe for the feature, so it could be some time before we see it roll out to Teams. People seem to be quite passionate about the feature, as many comments complain that it isn't already available and express doubt regarding Microsoft releasing it in a timely manner.

Several people in the UserVoice thread cite legal reasons as the driving factor behind wanting to delete messages.

Sean Endicott
News Writer

Sean Endicott is a News Writer at Windows Central, where he covers Windows 11, Surface hardware, Microsoft 365, AI, apps, and the broader PC ecosystem. Since joining the site in 2017, he has written well over a thousand articles across the Microsoft landscape, covering breaking news, analysis, and feature reporting.

He writes Windows Wrap, a weekly column covering the biggest stories in Windows and the PC industry, and what they mean for the platform going forward.

Before joining Windows Central full-time, Sean worked in journalism and media production after earning a First Class degree in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University. Outside of tech, he is an award-winning American football coach based in Nottingham, England, and was named BAFCA Youth Coach of the Year in 2024.