The group text chat you used to plan your best friend’s surprise birthday party was fun and productive. You really enjoyed the group iMessage conversation with your cousins that started a while ago too.
But now the birthday party chat has your phone buzzing at horribly late hours, and the cousin chat is mostly people arguing over family gossip. You’d really like to get out of these group chats, or at least be able to ignore them!
We're here to help. Read on to see how to get out of iMessage and MMS group chats on your iPhone as soon as possible.
How to Leave iMessage Group Chats on iPhone
iMessage is the service that iPhones and other Apple devices like the iPad use to send text messages over the internet. You can tell that you’ve sent a message via iMessage when the bubble you sent is blue instead of green.
We’ve written about how to start iMessage group chats before. The gist is since iMessage is only available on Apple devices, everyone in the chat needs to be using a supported device. They also need to be able to connect to the internet and have iMessage enabled.
If those parameters are met for a group chat that you want to leave, it’s a pretty simple process. At the top of the conversation, you’ll see circles denoting who is in the group chat. Below these circles you’ll see a count of how many people you’re talking to in the chat. To the right of this is a small arrow.
Tap on that arrow, followed by tap info on the far right. Scroll down to the bottom of the info menu, then tap Leave this Conversation to leave the iMessage group chat.
How to Leave MMS Group Chats on iPhone
Sadly you can’t leave group chats that include any non-Apple device users with just the tap of a button. If you're in a green-bubble group chat, you have to get a little more creative.
One of the ways you can suppress the annoyance is to mute the group chat. This won’t remove you from the chat entirely, but you won’t be notified when people send messages in the chat. You can simply avoid looking at the chat, making it about the same as leaving it.
To mute a group chat, head to the names section of the group chat window—that’s the one at the top with the circles and the person count.
Like with leaving an iMessage group, tap the arrow to the right of the person count, followed by info. Towards the bottom you should see the Hide Alerts switch.
Turn that switch on to mute the group chat. If you ever want to unmute the chat, just turn that switch back off and your phone will send you notifications again.
Another method of stepping away from an MMS group chat is to ask someone to remake the group chat without you in it.
This can be an awkward conversation. But if a group chat was formed for a short-term reason that's now over, like planning an event, most people should understand you wanting to step away.
Speaking up can also help other people who don’t want to be in the group chat. Ideally, everyone would follow group chat etiquette and not invite people to a group without asking their permission, but we all know this happens anyway. If one person speaks up, other people can more easily follow suit.
This lets the people who still want to be in the group chat continue talking, so it’s ideal for everyone. Braving a bit of awkwardness is good for yourself and others.
It’s OK to Walk Away From Group Conversations
iPhone group chats have their place, but you shouldn’t feel pressured to stay in one. Tap that Leave the Conversation button when it suits you. Mute the chat to avoid distracting notifications. Or ask for the chat to reform without you when you need to get away.
There are tips you can try in iPhone group chats that might make them more bearable in the future. But sometimes chats will die out or just not be fun anymore. Do what you need to do so you don't dread your iPhone buzzing.