Can You Delete Messages on Facebook Dating?

You can delete a conversation from your own side, but it stays in hers. Facebook's help center says deleting a conversation from your Dating inbox does not delete it from the other person's inbox. It also says you cannot delete messages you sent or received from her inbox. So treat every message you send her as permanent.

Facebook's help center is specific on two points. Deleting a conversation from your Dating account does not remove it from the other person's Dating inbox. And you have no way to delete a message, sent or received, from someone else's inbox.

Put plainly, your delete button controls your screen. It does not reach her phone.

The same help page says what the big option removes. If you delete your entire Dating profile, your profile, your answers, your likes, your matches and your conversations all go from your Dating account. Facebook does not say that clears anything on her end, so write as if it does not.

A man gets a cold reply, or a woman who has gone quiet, or a conversation that turned awkward. He deletes it, and the delete feels like undoing it.

It undoes nothing for her. The message he regrets is still in her inbox, where she can reread it, screenshot it or show a friend. The only person who forgot the conversation is him.

This matters most in the minutes after something annoys you. A sharp line sent to a woman who stopped replying cannot be taken back, and deleting the chat afterward only means you no longer have the evidence of what you said.

That sounds heavy, and it is simple in practice. Before you send anything, picture her reading it aloud to a friend. If you would wince, change it.

a dating coach's texting rules point the same way. Keep messages short, relaxed and specific to something she said. Never send a long, earnest block of text and never a stack of follow-ups when she has not answered. A short message you are happy to have read back is almost always the better message anyway.

It also protects you from the worst habit on any dating app: replying when you are upset. If a woman's message makes you angry, put the phone down for an hour. Nothing you send in that hour improves your chances, and everything you send stays.

You cannot remove it, so the choice is what you do next. If it was only awkward, leave it. Over-explaining draws more attention to it.

If it was rude, one short, plain apology is the whole job. "That came out wrong, sorry." Then talk about something else. Do not write a paragraph, and do not ask whether she is upset.

If she does not answer, let it go. A man who accepts a closed door and moves on looks far better than one who keeps pushing.

Often the real reason a man wants to delete a chat is that he wants it over. A clean ending is better than a delete.

If you are not interested, one line is enough: "Nice talking to you, but I don't think we're a match. Good luck." No excuse is needed, and no reason is owed.

If you are interested but the chat has drifted, do the opposite and move it forward. a dating coach's rule is to take a conversation off the app within a handful of messages and have a short call before a date. Ask for her number or suggest a time. A chat that reaches a plan has a purpose, and one that does not usually fades by itself.

If you are thinking of deleting your whole Dating profile to get rid of messages, look at the cost. Deleting removes your answers, likes, matches and conversations, and you cannot make a new profile for 7 days. You can delete your Dating profile without deleting your Facebook account, but you cannot get any of it back.

Get the number of anyone you still want to see before you do it. Every chat lives only in Dating, and once your profile is gone you have no way to reach her.

Delete a chat and it leaves your inbox, not hers. You cannot remove a message from her side. So write short, calm messages you would be fine seeing again, never reply in anger, and when a conversation is worth continuing, move it to a phone number.