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Edit or delete a message

Note: Editing topic titles is discussed in a separate guide.

By default, Zulip allows you to edit the content of your messages within 10 minutes of when you send them. Organization administrators can change the time limit, remove the time limit, or remove the ability to edit messages entirely.

  1. Hover over a message to reveal three icons on the right.

  2. Click the pencil () icon.

  3. After making the changes to your message in the message editing box, click the Save button to save the changes you made to your message.

Note: After you have edited a message, the message is publicly marked as (EDITED). You can view a message's edit history, assuming that feature has not been disabled by an organization administrator.

Message editing time limit

Depending on your organization settings, Zulip may be configured with a time limit within which you may edit a message (e.g. 10 minutes). As soon as that limit has passed, the pencil () icon changes to a file () icon.

Clicking on the file () icon will allow you to view the Markdown source or change the topic of your message.

Deleting messages

If you wish you hadn't sent a message at all, deleting the content of the message will cause the message to be displayed as (deleted). The original sender and timestamp of the message will still be displayed, and the original content of the message is still accessible via Zulip's edit history feature. This can be the least confusing option for other users.

Delete a message completely

For cases where someone accidentally shared secret information publicly (e.g. you posted an employee's salary), it can make sense to delete a message completely, so that the original content is not available in the message's edit history.

Organization administrators can always delete any message. By default, non-admins cannot delete messages (including their own), though this can be changed by an organization administrator.

To delete a message:

  1. Hover over a message to reveal three icons on the right.

  2. Click the down chevron ().

  3. Select the Delete message option from the dropdown to delete that message.

If you don't see the Delete message option, it means you don't have permissions to delete that message.

It's important to understand that anyone who received the message before you deleted it could have made a copy of its content. So if you accidentally shared secret information that you can change, like a password, you may want to change that password regardless of whether you also delete the message.