Apple

How to Leave an iPhone Group Chat on Messages

Published

3 years ago

Group chats are extremely convenient because they allow you to hold various conversations with multiple individuals at the same time and they allow you to easily carry the topic forward. You may, on the other hand, find yourself wishing to leave a group chat in Messages but being unable to do so for whatever reason.

Here are some of the reasons why you won’t be able to exit group conversations on your iPhone—and what you may do to work around them.

Why Can’t I Leave a Group Chat in Apple Messages?

There are two types of group chats in Apple Messages: an iMessage group, in which everyone in the group is an Apple user, and an SMS/MMS group, which can include a mix of Apple and non-Apple users. An iMessage group is the most common type of group chat.

In order to distinguish between the two, an iMessage group features blue speech bubbles, whilst an SMS/MMS group has green speech bubbles. You’ll be in an SMS/MMS group as long as there is at least one non-Apple user in the group, regardless of whether the rest of the group is comprised entirely of Apple users.

Here’s the kicker: SMS/MMS groups don’t give you the choice to opt out of them.

When everyone in an iMessage group is an Apple user, you can only exit group chats when everyone is an Apple user. With SMS/MMS groups, on the other hand, you can only quit if there are at least three persons left in the group, and they are all using an Apple device. The likelihood is that one or more people are not utilizing an Apple device with an iMessage feature enabled if you’re unable to leave the site.

How to Leave a Group Chat on Your iPhone

As previously stated, you will only be able to exit a group chat if everyone is using an Apple device and if there are at least three persons who will be left on the thread when you leave. For those who wish to depart:

Start a conversation in the group chat.
At the top of the thread, click on the group icon or the group name to join the group.
To get more information, press the Info I button.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select Leave this Conversation.

What to Do If You Can’t Leave a Group Chat

If you are a member of an SMS/MMS group, you will not be able to leave. You may, however, still get rid of the background noise by just muting the entire group. To accomplish this, follow these steps:

Start a conversation in the group chat.
At the top of the thread, click on the group icon or the group name to join the group.
To get more information, press the Info I button.
Hide Alerts can be found at the bottom of the page; toggle the switch on.

Alternatively, you can swipe left over the group message and then hit the Alerts button or the bell icon in purple to get more information. When the group chat is muted, a crescent icon will show next to it to signify that it is being muted. To reverse this, swipe the screen again and tap the Alerts button once more.