How to leave a group chat on your iPhone or Android device

Leave the group chat — Lance Whitney/ZDNET

How often have you been stuck in a group chat that you wish you could get out of safely? Maybe chat doesn’t interest you anymore. Perhaps the topic of conversation touched you in the wrong way. Whatever your reason, there are ways to leave a chat so you no longer have to participate in it. Here’s how to do it on iPhone and Android.

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How to leave a group chat on your iPhone

You can end a group conversation on iPhone if there are at least three other people in the conversation and they are all using an Apple device – iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch or Mac. Additionally, all chat participants must use the iMessage format, which means it won’t work if someone joins via an Android device. If for some reason you can’t leave a chat, muting its notifications is always another option.

Often, the most annoying part of a group chat isn’t the participation itself, but the notifications that appear every time someone posts a message. If you can’t or don’t want to permanently end the chat, you can simply cancel the notifications. This option works even if one or more participants use an Android device.

To try this, open a group conversation and tap the group name or number of people at the top of the screen. On the next screen, turn on the “Hide alerts” toggle. Now you will no longer have to see or hear a notification when someone adds a new SMS.

Mute notifications — Screenshot: Lance Whitney/ZDNET

If you really want to end the group chat, reopen the conversation and tap the group name or number of people at the top of the screen. On the next screen, select “Leave this conversation.” Confirm your action by selecting the “Leave this conversation” pop-up notification. At this point, you’ll still be able to view the existing conversation, but you won’t be able to see any future texts or participate in the chat.

Leave the conversation — Screenshot: Lance Whitney/ZDNET

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By preventing you from leaving a group chat where at least one Android user is participating, you can hide or block the conversation. To do this, open the conversation thread and tap the name or number at the top. On the next screen, select “Delete and block this conversation.” Confirm your action by tapping “Delete and block conversation.” Any new messages sent to this group chat will be automatically deleted from your phone. If no new messages are sent within a certain period of time, the conversation will be permanently deleted on your end.

Delete and block the conversation — Screenshot: Lance Whitney/ZDNET

How to leave a group chat on an Android device

When using the Google News app on your Android device, you can mute notifications or leave a group chat entirely. To leave the chat, all participants must be using an Android device.

1. Mute notifications

To mute a notification for a specific group chat, open the message thread and tap the people’s names at the top. Select Notifications, then turn off the “Show notifications” switch.

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2. Leave the conversation

To leave the chat completely, click the people’s names at the top of the conversation again. Select “Leave group”. Click OK when asked if you want to permanently leave the group. You won’t see any new messages posted to the group nor will you be able to continue contributing to the group.