Message Retention: What Expires and What Remains

DMs: 14 days. Private groups: 21 days. Global Chat: 7 days. Learn what scheduled cleanup removes and how message sync works on new devices.

Message Retention and Deletion

The message-record policy

• DMs: 14 days from creation.
• Private-group messages: 21 days from creation.
• Global Chat messages: 7 days from creation.
• Other public-group messages: no automatic period currently.

Pinning or editing a message does not restart its age. The scheduled job runs hourly when deployed; an outage or a backlog can delay removal. The production cron service must be deployed before scheduled cleanup is active.

What cleanup does not erase

Deletion removes message records, not media-provider objects or existing media URLs. Moderation reports, notifications, screenshots, recipient copies, and provider backups are separate. Do not treat a retention deadline as guaranteed revocation of every copy.

Fresh history is a different rule

A new device syncs your messages — DM and private-group history loads automatically, similar to WhatsApp's message sync.

Encryption and account access

History limits and deletion are not end-to-end encryption. CipherChat currently processes readable messages. Existing account passcodes can authorize account access when needed, not recover hidden chats. See the Privacy Policy and Data & Security for details.