How to Leave a Group Text

Quick! Get out of annoying message threads on iOS and Android

By
Sarah Silbert
Writer
Sarah Lawrence is a consumer technology writer whose work has appeared in Fortune and MIT Technology Review. She's also a previous senior editor at Engadget.
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Sarah Silbert
Updated January 03, 2020

While keeping in touch with your loved ones is great, sometimes the constant updates from a group text are not. To stop receiving group-text notifications on your Android or iPhone, mute the notifications, even if you can't extract yourself from the group chat altogether.

Instructions in this article have been reviewed for iOS 12 and Android 8. Procedures are substantially similar for the most recent versions of both mobile operating systems.

Leave a Group Text on Android

Illustration of a woman receiving group texts at inconvenient times, like during yoga class, at work, and in bed
 Emilie Dunphy @Lifewire

On an Android device, you can't leave a group text without asking to be removed, but you can choose to mute notifications.

The following instructions apply to the stock messages app on Android. If your Android phone uses a different texting app, for example, Messages on the Samsung phone, the process for leaving a group text may be different.

Don't confuse the stock Android messaging app with Android Messages. These are different apps.

  1. Navigate to the group text.

  2. Tap the three vertical dots.

  3. Tap the Notification bell to mute the conversation.

    Three Android screens showing three dot menu and two states of Notification icon

  4. You will not see any more messages in the group text unless you go back and tap the bell again to accept them. At that point, the messages you missed will populate the conversation.

Leave a Group Text on an iPhone

If you have an iPhone, you have a few options for muting unwanted group texts.

Option 1: Mute Notifications

The first option on iOS is to mute group text notifications:

  1. Open the group text you want to mute.

  2. Go to the top of the screen and tap the group of contacts.

  3. Tap the Information button (it's located under the group).

    Three iOS screens showing Group at top, Info icon, and Hide Alerts toggle set to ON

  4. Scroll to the bottom and tap the Hide Alerts toggle to turn it On.

When you select Hide Alerts (or Do Not Disturb in iOS 11 or earlier), you won't get a notification (and the accompanying text sound) each time someone in the group text sends a new message. To view all new messages in the thread, open the group text. This method cuts down on distractions.

Option 2: Leave a Group Text on iOS

The way to really leave the conversation is easy but this isn't always an option even if you're using the Messages app on your iPhone.

To leave a group text on iOS, you'll need the following circumstances:

  • You must be in an iMessage conversation rather than a standard group text message. If some of the people in the group chat use Android phones or other apps rather than Messages on iOS, you'll be in a standard group message and the option to leave a group text through Messages isn't available.
  • There must be at least four people in a group text. The logic being that if you were to leave a three-person conversation, it would no longer be a group text but rather a simple text between two people. In any case, if you're in a three-person iMessage chat, the Leave this Conversation option is grayed out.

If you are able to leave a group text on iOS, follow these instructions:

  1. Open the group iMessage you want to leave.

  2. Tap the group at the top, then the Information button.

  3. Scroll down and tap Leave this Conversation.

    Two iOS screens showing Leave this Conversation options and the confirmation button

  4. Tap Leave this Conversation to confirm you choice.