Unable To Clear Message From Chat

Question

In my personal chat, I deleted a message, but the "This message has been deleted" message remains, even after 30+ days.

I have tried

• Signing out, quitting the app, and deleting the cache.
• Reset the app
• Repaired the app

[Moderator note: Personally Identifiable Information removed]

Answer 1

Good day @Daniel Needemyer, 

Thank you for reaching out and sharing your concern. I understand how important it is to keep your chat clean and organized, and I appreciate you taking the time to highlight this.  

When a message is deleted in Teams, it’s replaced with a “This message has been deleted” note that remains in the conversation. This helps keep the chat history clear and consistent. Currently, this note cannot be removed or hidden on its own. 

I can definitely see how these limitations in Teams can feel disruptive. It’s not just about aesthetics; these differences can genuinely affect how smoothly you work and navigate your day. 

I’m really sorry, I know this isn’t the outcome you were hoping for. As a forum moderator, I hope you understand that I don’t have the ability to modify or escalate product issues directly. However, I strongly recommend submitting your feedback through the Microsoft Teams · Community. This is the most effective way to ensure your voice reaches the product team and can be considered for future improvements.  

Once you've submitted your feedback, feel free to share the link here in the comments. I’ll be happy to upvote it to help bring more visibility. If you prefer, I can also submit this great idea on your behalf. Just let me know, and I’ll post it for you and share the link once it’s published. I’m here to help ensure your feedback gets the attention it deserves. 

Additionally, as other users have raised similar concerns and may not be aware of where to share their feedback, I hope this response helps clarify the situation and suggests a potential next step. Highlighting this information can make it more visible to others in the community who may be facing the same issue, making it easier for them to find guidance and contribute their feedback as well. 

Thank you again for your time and for raising this important usability concern. 

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have any extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".            

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread. 

Answer 2

The behavior is by design. When a message is deleted in Microsoft Teams, it is replaced by a system “tombstone” message such as “This message has been deleted” or “This message was deleted by an admin.” That replacement message is what all participants see instead of the original content.

For user-deleted messages, this tombstone remains visible in the chat history and is not removed after a set period. Clearing cache, repairing, or reinstalling the app does not remove it because it is part of the conversation history, not a local artifact.

In organizational scenarios, retention policies or eDiscovery search-and-purge operations can also delete Teams messages. In those cases, Teams similarly replaces the deleted content with a system message indicating that an admin removed the message, and that message is what remains in the chat. Messages removed by retention policies or compliance actions cannot be recovered or further altered from the client.

There is currently no client-side option to hide or remove that “This message has been deleted” entry from the chat; it will remain as part of the conversation record.

---

References:

• Microsoft Teams messages about retention policies
• Find and delete Microsoft Teams chat messages in eDiscovery
• Why was my community message deleted in Microsoft Teams Free?
• Delete a message you've sent in Microsoft Teams Free