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Oh no! Did you accidentally add the wrong person to your group chat? Luckily, it’s easier than ever to remove people from a mass text, especially if everyone has RCS (Rich Communication Services) enabled. In this article, we’ll explain how to remove a group member from a text chat on an iPhone, Samsung, or stock Android phone.
Removing Someone from a Group Chat
- On an iPhone, tap the group icon at the top of the screen, expand the list of members, and swipe left on the person you want to remove.
- On a Samsung Galaxy, tap the group name and select Add/remove recipients to manage group members.
- On a stock Android, tap the group name, then tap the ⋮ > Remove from group next to the person’s name.
Steps
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Open Messages and go to the group chat that you want to remove someone from. As long as everyone has an iPhone or iPad (making blue messages), you'll be able to remove people.[1] You can also remove Android users who have RCS enabled.
- If you see that you're in a "Group SMS," meaning that not everyone in the group is using RCS messaging, you won't be able to remove people from the group.
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2Tap the group of icons at the top of the chat. You will see the initials or profile pictures of the members of the group in a cluster at the top of the chat, along with the number of people in the group. Tap the group icons to open a new page.Advertisement
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3Tap the group to expand the list of members. On the next screen, you will see a list of group members right underneath the call and video icons. Tap it to expand a menu showing the name of each person in the group.
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4Swipe left over the name you want to remove. Drag your finger from the right of your screen to the left in order to get the next step.
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5Tap Remove. If the group has fewer than 4 participants (including yourself), you won't be able to remove anyone from the chat. However, if there are 4 or more people in the group, you will see a red Remove button when you swipe left. Tap it to remove the person from the group.[2]
- To add a new contact or add the person back to the group, tap the + Add Contact button at the bottom of the same menu.
- You can also remove yourself from the group by tapping the red Leave this Conversation link lower down in the group chat menu. You might have to scroll down to see it.
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1Open the group chat you want to edit. If you have a Samsung Galaxy phone, it’s easy to manage group texts in the Samsung Messages app. To start, open Messages and select the group chat.[3]
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2Tap the group’s name. You’ll see this at the top of the chat window.
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3Tap Add/remove recipients. This button is located under the list of group chat members. Tap it and select any members you want to remove from the group.
- If you’re having trouble managing your group chat, make sure you have group conversations enabled in the Messages app’s settings. To do this:
- Go to Settings in the Messages app and tap Multimedia messages. Toggle on the switch next to Group conversations.
- If you’re having trouble managing your group chat, make sure you have group conversations enabled in the Messages app’s settings. To do this:
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1Make sure you have RCS enabled. With the correct settings, you can remove members from a group chat in Google Messages on an Android phone. However, you and the other members of the group will need to have RCS (Rich Communication Services) enabled for this to work. To turn on RCS on your phone:[4]
- In the Google Messages app, tap your profile icon, then select Messages settings.
- Tap RCS chats and toggle RCS chats on.
- If you don’t see this option, make sure you’re running the latest version of Android available for your device. Some older phones may not support RCS.
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2Open the chat with the person you want to remove. In the main Messages menu, open the group chat you want to edit.
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3Tap the group name at the top of your group chat. You’ll see the name of your chat in the top left corner of the screen. Tapping it will open the Group Details menu.
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4Tap the ⋮ button by the name of the user you want to remove. Near the bottom of the Group Details screen, you’ll see a list of group members. Find the person you want to remove and tap ⋮ to the right of their name.
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5Select Remove from group. If you and the other members of the group are using RCS, you should see this option when you tap the menu button by the person’s name. Select it to remove the person from the group.
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6Tap Leave group to remove yourself from the chat. Again, this will only work if you have RCS enabled. To remove yourself from the group, Leave group at the bottom of the Group details screen.
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Open the Chats app or Gmail. The Chats mobile app looks like two green chat bubbles, but you can also launch Gmail and tap the Chat tab if you have it enabled.
- You can enable Chat in Gmail by tapping ☰ > Settings then tapping the account you want to chat with (if you have more than one Google account), and finally tapping the box next to "Chat."
- Since SMS and your normal Messages app don't allow you to remove people from the group after you've created it, you'll want to use an internet-based messaging service like Google Chats or WhatsApp.
- The process is the same if you're using an iPhone and have a mixed group of iPhone and Android friends without RCS enabled that you want to group chat with.
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Navigate to the Chat that you want to remove someone from and tap the group name. The group name is at the top of your screen.
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3Tap Manage members. This option is at the top of the menu. A list of group members will open.
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Tap ⋮ next to their name. This will open a pop-up menu of options.[5]
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5Tap Remove from space or Remove from chat. This will remove the person from the group so that they can no longer respond to messages or view the chat history.
- Tap Remove again to confirm and proceed.
Expert Q&A
Video
Tips
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Since you can't technically leave an SMS text group on Android, you can mute it and prevent your phone from sending you notifications.Thanks
Expert Interview
Thanks for reading our article! If you’d like to learn more about texting, check out our in-depth interview with Brehima Traore.