What you need to know
- Google Messages now adds a trash folder, allowing you to recover deleted chats instead of deleting them instantly.
- Deleted conversations remain in the trash for 30 days, with options to restore or permanently delete them at any time.
- New messages from deleted chats appear as new threads and do not restore the original conversation.
If you’ve ever accidentally deleted a conversation in Google Messages, the app now gives you a second chance to recover it.
After testing it in beta, Google Messages It is now rolling out the trash folder to all users. Previously, when you deleted chats in the app, they were deleted immediately. But now, instead of being deleted immediately, the chat will be moved to a trash folder before being permanently deleted.
When you delete a thread, it remains in the trash for 30 days, after which it is automatically deleted. Of course, you can go in and permanently delete the thread at any time if you want. Similarly, you can also restore conversations from here within that one month period.
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Now, when you tap the delete icon after selecting a chat, Google Messages will display a message stating that the chat is being moved to the trash. To access it, you can tap the profile icon at the top right, where it appears in the “More from this app” section under the Archived option.
You will be able to access deleted chats, restore them or permanently delete them using the options available in the trash folder.
It’s worth noting that if you receive a message from a trashed conversation, it will appear as a new thread in your main inbox and will not restore the original chat from the trash folder.
The feature is now rolling out to Android phones. I was able to access it in version 20260403_00_RC00 of the app on my Oppo Find X9 Pro. If you still don’t see it, you may need to update the app from the Google Play Store.
It’s good to see Google adding more features to Messages, especially now that Samsung plans phase out your own Messages app on Galaxy devices later this year. This comes after Google also started testing the mentions feature in the application.
Android Central’s opinion
This is one of those little features that should have been here a long time ago. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve deleted a chat by mistake. Having a trash folder makes Google Messages now look more complete.
