Why Can't I Leave or Delete a Person from a Group Message?

One of the most anticipated features in iOS 8 was the ability to leave or delete a person from a group message, but some users are reporting that the new feature does not work. This is because there are several factors that need to be met before you can use the option to leave or delete a person from a conversation of 4 or more people. First, lets look at how to leave a group message:

iOS 8 Group Messaging

You can leave a group message by entering the message thread and tapping the "Details" button in the top right corner. From here, you can either silence group texts by tapping the "Do Not Disturb" slider, or leave the group entirely by selecting the "Leave this conversation" option.

The "Leave this conversation" panel must appear in red for it to work. If the "Leave this conversation" panel is grey, as shown below, this means there are not enough people in the conversation for you to leave. There needs to be 4 or more people in a thread to make the "Leave this conversation" option available and appear in red.

iOS 8 Group Messaging

Why can't I delete a person from a group message?

You can only delete a person from a group if you added them. To delete a person from a group message go to the "Details" page and swipe left on their name like you're deleting an email. This will bring up a red "Delete" button for you to tap so you can remove that person from the group.

Why am I still receiving messages from a group conversation when I hit the "Do Not Disturb" button?

Various users have been complaining that they keep receiving messages even after using the "Do Not Disturb" group feature in iOS 8. This seems to be because some users in the group are not using iMessage. For example, if one person in the group is using an Android device, you will keep receiving his/her messages even after you enabled the "Do Not Disturb" slider. You may want to use the "Leave this conversation" option is this type of scenario.

Jon Reed helped with additional research for this article.

Comments

There has to be 4 people in the conversation in order to leave??? That is just plain stupid. Still have to get a third party app to send group emails too. I pine for the days my company had Blackberries.

i found a trick to leave a group chat with only 3 people. All you have to do is make a contact for yourself, it will then let you add "yourself" into the group chat. Now that it seems as if there are 4 people it will let you leave the convo. Sorry this is so late but I hope it helps-- anonymous

Brilliant, thank you so much!

Thank you so very much!!! OMG you just made my life so much easier!! I've not been able to exit group messages until now!!

But then wouldn't you still receive the texts because you just added yourself?

I find the best way to deal with this situation is to add a random person to the chat then bail.

"I find the best way to deal with this situation is to add a random person to the chat then bail." How can you ad a random person if you need to have a real phone # attach to them? Also you are leaving for a good reason yet you want to put someone else through a boring or unwanted conversation which they didn't ask for? How RUDE is that!

I have more the 4 ppl in the group and no way to delete the group !! WTF ?????????????????

It also appears that you can not add a person to a group message if just one person in the group is not using iMessage. This seems quite stupid - my old "dumb" phone was even able to adjust the people in group messages at will!

I also can not fathom why Apple has not enabled/created the ability to create a "group", or "list" contact to facilitate easily sending messages to frequently used groups (i.e. I want to be able to create a group contact, or "list" (as in Outlook), that will let me send a message out to all the parents of the soccer team I coach, for last-minute updates or information, via email or text message!).

even though you are unable to add the group into a contact name, the people in your group message still stays in your recents. so, when you click the new message button at the top right hand corner in your messages and you begin to type in a person's name from the group message, everyone in the group messages name will still appear as shown below

You might check out GroupMe app. Our neighborhood association uses it effectively.

I found a way to add or delete a contact/number to a message....On the messages screen hit the pencil in the upper right corner of the screen, when the new message window comes up you will start typing one of the previous recipients name, when you see the list of messages with the contacts you can then touch that thread the numbers of the contacts currently in that thread will appear in green, you can add a new number or delete a number here. Only bad thing is that the previous message thread will not show up in this new thread.

This works perfectly! Thank you!

Thank you so much...perfect!!!

I hit the "Leave this conversation" and yet my phone keeps getting the messages anyway. The function shows up red and I activate it, but it does not work. The dang messages just keep coming! Anyone have an idea why? Or how I can turn that $%^& off?

I guess we were wrong and the "Leave this conversation" option has the same problem as the Do Not Disturb option. You are probably still receiving messages from users in the group who are not using an iPhone. There is no known way to stop this if this is the case.

It will remove yourself from the iMessage users. Android users will not have that feature, and you will keep being notified. If you need to, block their contact

I can't leave a group message if there are android users in it. Is this apple's way of saying screw you if you don't have unlimited texting? I feel like they can't be this stupid. There's got to be a reason for such an obvious feature to be omitted.

This leave or delete option is only available to conversations with less than 4 people. They have it wrong.

That's even more ridiculous! The option to leave or delete someone from a group text should be allowed as the users decide. I can't believe this hasn't been fixed.

I every time emailed this blog post page to all my associates, for the reason that if like to read it next my contacts will too.

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When I tap details, I don't have the Leave this Conversation option. I have tried to swipe names, but they don't swipe. Perhaps everyone I know has some other type of phone. Very frustrating!

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do members in groupchat get notified when someone leaves the conversation? i.e. when i "leave this conversation" will the others know??