Google Messages is getting a small but really useful feature that can help with cleanups and accidental entries. The app now has a proper Trash folder so you can go back to conversations you recently deleted.
Why this is a handy new feature
The company’s official support documentation revealed the new Trash folder that will allow users to recover deleted conversations within 30 days. This adds a buffer to help prevent accidental message loss. But after this one-month window, the conversation will be permanently deleted.
However, the feature is still very useful. Instead of a deleted conversation immediately disappearing for good, it first goes into the Trash, similar to Google Drive’s Bin folder. From there, users can restore individual chats, restore all deleted chats, or permanently delete selected conversations. Google says it will display an individual countdown for each deleted conversation, indicating how many days remain until they are actually removed.
There is more than one way to move chats to trash
Google designed this feature to be easily accessible. Users can move conversations to the trash by either setting up a swipe action or by touching and holding one or more chats and tapping the trash icon. To activate the swipe shortcut, users need to go into Messages Settings, open Swipe Actions, and swipe the trash either left or right.
There is also a small catch.
If you receive a new message in a conversation that is currently in the trash, that incoming message may appear as a new conversation in your inbox. Therefore, the Trash is not necessarily a repository for chat threads that you want to avoid.
