Group texts are a great way for multiple people to communicate with each other around a specific subject or topic. If you were inviting multiple friends to head off for a Friday night dinner, a group text would be the best way to organize and structure information around the event. It makes it easier to figure out what time works for everybody, carpooling if needed, and more.
Groups texts are great in that sense, but they can also quickly get out of hand — you’ve no doubt been included in those 20-person or more group texts around a silly subject, with your phone blowing up with responses from people you don’t even know every second.
So how do you remove yourself from a group text like this? As far as doing it on any iPhone, it’s actually quite easy right through the Messages app.
Messages
If you’re running iOS 12 or later, removing yourself from a group text is quite easy. First, open up your Messages app, and then select the group text that you don’t want to be a part in anymore. Tap it, and then you’ll want to tap the profile icons at the top of the text message.
A status bar should appear, giving you the option to select Audio, FaceTime, or Info. We’ll want to click on the Info button. Next, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. You should see an option that says Leave This Conversation. Tap it. Now you’ve left the group text!
If someone in your group text doesn’t have an iPhone, or isn’t using iMessage, that Leave This Conversation option might be grayed out or not there at all. If either of those are the case, you won’t be able to leave the group conversation, and would be better off encouraging the members to start a new group text without you.
The good news is that you can at least stop your phone from blowing up with messages. Once again, you’ll want to tap that Info button in your group message of choice, and then scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. This time, we’ll tap on the Hide Alerts button. If it’s highlighted as green, that means it’s enabled.
With it enabled, you won’t get anymore notifications or “alerts” about that group text message you’re in; however, it will still be accessible within your list of Messages — you just won’t get that “ding” every time a new text comes through.
Facebook Messenger
As you can see, leaving a conversation on your iPhone isn’t easy — everyone has to be using iMessage in order to make that happen. That’s why we like Facebook Messenger so much — they make it easy to leave group conversations, and even block them if you so choose.
To leave a conversation in Facebook Messenger, you’ll need to open your Messenger app on your phone or tablet. Tap on the conversation that you want to leave, and then tap on the name of the group at the top of the conversation.
Finally scroll down to the Options subsection, and press on the option that says Leave Chat. A pop up will appear, asking you if you really want to leave the chat. You can press the Leave button to continue with your choice.
Once you press Leave, the conversation will be archived. You’ll be able to look over your previous messages in the Messenger Archives, but you won’t be able to get any new messages within the context of that group text. Upon pressing Leave, the conversation automatically disappears from your list of messages.
If there’s a conversation that you’re in that you don’t want to leave, but you want to stop all of the insane notifications, Facebook Messenger makes that easy, too. Under the option that says Privacy & Shortcuts, tap on the Ignore Messages option. You won’t be notified of further messages, and the group will be moved to Filtered Messages.
Alternatively, you can tap the option that says Receive Notifications, and setup specific rules for notifications. For example, you can set it up so that you’re only notified when someone mentions your name.
WhatsApp makes it really easy to leave group conversations as well. They actually have a very unique way of handling group text messages in general. To even join a group text, the admin or creator of the group text has to send you an invite link that you have to tap on to even join.
You can’t just be added to a group text like in text messages. It has to be with your permission.
Exiting a group text is just as easy. Once you’re in the group text, you’ll need to click on it. And then, within the message section, press the title at the very top of the screen.
Then, scroll all the way to the bottom, and simply click on the Exit Group button. That will remove you from the group text, and you won’t receive anymore notifications from that group. It will, however, show that you left the group when you press that Exit Group button.
Closing
As you can see, it’s difficult to block conversations in the Messages app itself. You can only really hide the alerts, but the conversation will continue to be available within Messages. It’s a whole lot easier to leave group conversations in other text apps, such as Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.