Delete your Hangout message history

When you delete your Hangout history, it’ll be deleted from your Gmail and from Hangouts on all of your devices. Other people in the Hangout can still view the history.

Delete history for a Hangout with one other person

You won't be able to recover your Hangout history after you delete it. If you want to see your Hangout's history, you can see it as long as the history setting was on when the message was sent.

  1. Open Hangouts in Gmail or Google+.
    • Gmail: In the bottom-left corner, click on the Hangouts icon  .
    • Google+: In the top-right corner, click on the Hangouts icon .
  2. At the top right of the Hangout conversation window, click the gear icon.
  3. Select Delete Hangout.
  4. Click Delete.

Delete history for a group Hangout

Currently, there’s no way to delete the Hangout history for a group Hangout and still stay in the Hangout. If you want to clear the Hangout history, you’ll need to leave the Hangout completely. When you leave the Hangout, your message history will be deleted for only you – others in the Hangout will still see your message history. Also, you’ll no longer receive new message notifications.

  1. Open Hangouts in Gmail or Google+.
    • Gmail: In the bottom-left corner, click on the Hangouts icon  .
    • Google+: In the top-right corner, click on the Hangouts icon .
  2. At the top of the group Hangout window, click the gear icon .
  3. Click Leave Hangout.

See deleted history

Hangouts with one other person: You can’t see deleted messages from a Hangout you had with only one other person.

Group Hangouts: To see the history of a group Hangout, have someone who is still in the Hangout add you back.

For Gmail users

Your Hangout history may be saved as several email threads. Deleting your message history will delete all email threads associated with that Hangout. Deleted messages won’t be stored in your Trash folder.

Moving messages to the trash in Gmail:

Your Hangout may be stored as a series of email threads within Gmail. Moving the threads to the trash will only remove the messages from your Gmail mailbox. Moving the email threads won’t delete the messages from the Hangout window or on the Hangouts mobile app.

 

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