How To Leave A Group Chat On An iPhone And Stay Gone
When you are in a group chat on your iPhone and want to leave it, there is a way you can do it, as long as certain situations are already in place. Group chats can be fun, and they can be informational. They can also be redundant or even downright annoying. Knowing how to disengage from one can be super helpful when you’ve already gotten the information you need or you no longer want to be involved in the conversation that is taking place.
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How do you get out of a group chat on an iPhone?
You can leave a group chat on your iPhone as long as everyone in the group is using an Apple device (such as an iPhone, iPad, or MacBook), and you follow a specific order of steps to allow you to remove yourself from the group.
We’ve probably all been in this situation at least once…someone added us to a group chat because they are planning a party and want to make sure we know the details, or there is a team chat for one of our kid’s sporting events or a team chat for a group we are in at work.
It’s great to be able to stay up-to-date on the latest news and necessary details, but there comes a point where the whole chat seems now to be filled with cat videos or random recipes that we aren’t really interested in. Perhaps the whole group doesn’t want to disassemble, but we personally would prefer not to be in it anymore.
If there are certain factors in place, you can easily remove yourself. Let’s explore how.
I love the convenience my iPhone adds to my life. Whether it’s keeping up with family and friends from afar or keeping me abreast of the latest happenings with my colleagues who all work remotely, my iPhone and its chat feature allow me to feel connected to others everywhere.
But I also like knowing I can leave a group when I’m ready to. I’m going to explain to you how effortless this is, as long as certain factors are true.
How Do I Leave A Group Chat on My iPhone?
When Apple came out with the first iPhone in 2007, it revolutionized how consumers used hand-held phones.
Before the iPhone made its worldwide debut, handheld phones were reliant on a stylus to operate. The touch-screen became widely popular, very quickly, and made iPhones the top-selling smartphone before long.
Lots of other features have come along since then, improving the iPhone’s ability to work for us in any number of ways. From video chats to voice recognition, our iPhones have gone through vast improvements since 2007, and continue to just get better and better.
One of the most convenient (and fun!) features of the latest iPhone models is the ability to have text conversations with more than one person at a time.
Known as a “group chat”, it is easy to have multiple people in your contacts be privy to the same photos, videos, and messages all at the same time. You can also be added to group chats with others, making it easy for everyone to get and send the same information to a bunch of people all synonymously.
Group chats are used for all kinds of things, from keeping everyone updated about an upcoming meeting to sharing photos from a recent family adventure. But what happens when you no longer want or need to be part of a group chat that is still going strong?
You can remove yourself from a chat, but only under certain conditions. Let’s explore what those are, and then how to go about exiting a chat when you no longer want to be a part of it.
1. Everyone Must Be Using an Apple Device
Before you can figure out how to leave a group chat, you’ll need to figure out what type of device everyone in the group chat is using.
This is crucial for a big reason. Group chats that are initiated on an Apple device can’t be left if anyone in that group chat isn’t using an Apple product.
For example, let’s say you are in a group chat with four people, including yourself. You are using an iPhone and so is one other person.
The third person is using an iPad. All is good so far.
The fourth person in the group chat is on an Android phone. Herein lies the problem.
Android phones are smartphones that are not Apple products. There are many types of Android phones to choose from and the debate continues over whether Apple or Android products are better. (Lots of consumers have very strong opinions about this!)
But, in this case, the important difference is this – a person with an Android phone can still be part of a group chat, but their messages are actually being sent to them via SMS and not as iMessages (as is the case with the iPhone and iPad users.)
SMS chats show up in a green bubble on your screen, whereas an iMessage chat is in a blue bubble. If you see a green bubble on your screen, then you know someone in your chat is not using an Apple product.
So…if that fourth person in your group chat is using an Android phone, your group chat is showing up in a green bubble and it’s an SMS chat and not an iMessage chat.
If this is the case, then you can’t leave the chat.
But, let’s say your group chat bubble is blue. Now you know that all the people involved are using some sort of an Apple product, such as an iPhone or an iPad for messaging.
Now you’re in business. When you decide you want to leave the group chat, the process is pretty simple, and all it takes is following a handful of steps.
2. Steps to Allow You to Leave a Group Chat on Your iPhone
Now that you’ve established the fact that every person in your group chat is using an Apple device to communicate, you can now follow a string of simple steps to allow yourself to leave the group.
First, open the specific group chat that you are referring to in your Messages icon.
This icon is usually found on the first screen of your Apple device since it is used quite frequently.
Once you’ve opened the group chat in Messages, you can now go ahead and click on the name of the group that’s at the top of your screen.
Make sure this is the correct group that you want to leave. If you choose the wrong group chat, you will have to ask the person who created it to let you back in.
With the correct group chat open, look at the bottom of the screen on your iPhone or another device.
You will see a prompt that says, “Leave this Conversation.”
Check one more time to make sure it’s the right group chat. If it is, go ahead and click the “Leave this Conversation” icon at the bottom of the page.
The other remaining members in the chat will know that you have now left the group. Unless you are re-added, you will no longer see any of the messages that are being exchanged between the other members.