Deleting messages changes only your own Messages conversations, not those of your recipients. Tip: Use Undo Send to retract a message you sent accidentally.
If you delete it on your phone it does not delete it from the recipients phone. You cannot retract a deleted message without restoring the entire phone backup and that is assuming that the message is contained in the backup.
Unsend a message
A note confirming that you unsent the message appears in both conversation transcripts: yours and your recipient's. If the person you're messaging is using a device with iOS 16 or later, iPadOS 16 or later, or macOS Ventura, unsending removes the message from their device.
Unfortunately, you cannot delete a message from both your and the recipient's iPhone once it is sent using the default iMessage or SMS app. However, some third-party apps like WhatsApp or Telegram allow you to delete messages from both sides within a specific time frame.
Here's how to unsend a text on an iPhone or iPad:
Navigate to the conversation that contains the message you want to unsend. Tap and hold the message you want to remove. In the pop-up menu, select “Undo Send.” Both you and the recipient will see a note confirming that you unsent the message.
Tap the triple-dot menu icon, visible in the upper-right corner of the messages screen. Select the trash bin icon. Choose the conversation you want to recover and select “Restore.”
Delete individual text messages
Touch and hold the message you want to delete. Optional: To delete multiple messages, touch and hold the first message, then tap more messages.
Open a conversation in the Messages app.
If it's been longer than 2 minutes, you won't have the option to unsend. You can, however, edit a message you've sent for up to 15 minutes.
People unsend messages when they're sent by accident.
Maybe she sent you a message that was actually meant for a friend, or maybe she meant to message a different person with your same name. With the unsend feature, she might have just quickly removed the message so she wouldn't have to explain her mistake.
Deleting messages changes only your own Messages conversations, not those of your recipients. Tip: Use Undo Send to retract a message you sent accidentally.
In Messages, tap Edit on the conversations page. If you previously turned Message Filtering on, the Edit button doesn't appear. Instead, tap Filters on the conversations page. Tap Show Recently Deleted .
With Messages in iCloud, anything you delete and recover from iPhone is also deleted and recovered from your other Apple devices where Messages in iCloud is turned on. Deleting and recovering messages changes only your own Messages conversations, not those of your recipients.
How to Tell if Text Messages were Deleted. To tell if text messages were deleted from your iPhone, what you will need is PhoneRescue for iOS. Because it allows you to scan your iPhone, then you can preview all messages and iMessage on your iPhone, including deleted ones.
Text messages are sent via your carrier, and once they leave your iPhone, Apple can't unsend them. Undo Send works only for iMessage, Apple's encrypted messaging service that works using Wi-Fi or cellular data.
Once you send an iMessage from your iPhone, you have 15 minutes to unsend it. Unsending your message will delete it from your phone and from any device you sent it to. In its place, you and the recipient will see a message saying that a message was removed.
User Has Blocked You
One of the reasons you may not be able to unsend a message after you've sent it is that the recipient blocked you. If you sent someone a message but didn't unsend it immediately afterward, they probably blocked you in the time that passed between sending and attempting to unsend.
The unsent message is removed from the conversation, but they could still be included if the conversation is reported and the recipient will still be able to see that you have sent and removed a message, as well as report it, but they can't see what you sent.
You can permanently unsend a message that you've sent or just hide a message from your view. If you select Unsend for You, other people in the chat will still see the messages in their chat screen. If you select Unsend for Everyone, people included in the chat won't be able to see the unsent message.
The removed message will be replaced by text alerting everyone in the conversation the message was removed. You will have up to 10 minutes to remove a message after it is sent. If you want to remove a message just for yourself, you can still do that anytime by selecting “Remove for You”.
Open a Messenger conversation. Hover over the message you'd like to remove and click More, then Remove. Click Remove for You or Unsend for Everyone.