How to Leave, Block, or Mute a Group Chat on iPhone, iPad, and Mac

How to Leave, Block, or Mute a Group Chat on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Unlike one-on-one text messages, you can’t block group conversations on Apple devices. But you can consider two alternatives: mute the group or leave the chat. Leaving a group completely removes you from the chat, and ending a group disables notifications from the conversation.

This guide covers ways to mute and exit unwanted or annoying group chats on iPhone, iPad, and macOS computers.

How to Leave a Group Chat

To leave a group conversation, there must be at least four people in the chat: you and three other participants. In addition, all group members must be using an Apple deviceâ€”iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac.

Exit group chats on iPhone and iPad

Open a group conversation in Messages and tap the group or photo icon at the top of the screen. In iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, scroll down the group chat menu and tap Leave Conversation. Select “Leave this conversation” again in the pop-up window to leave the group chat. If your device is running iOS 14 or earlier, tap the Info button in the group chat menu and tap Leave Conversation.

If you can’t leave a conversation, make sure there are at least four people in the group. The Leave This Conversation option will not be available if the group has three (or fewer) members, or if the group is an SMS/MMS group. Restart or update your iOS device if you can’t leave an iMessage group with four or more members.

Note An iMessage group chat is a chat where all participants use iMessage-enabled Apple devices. SMS/MMS groups have at least one member with a non-Apple device or an Apple device with iMessage disabled. For more information about the differences between iMessage text messages and SMS/MMS, see this Apple Support document.

Exit group chats on Mac

Here’s how to leave an iMessage group conversation on MacBook and iMac running macOS.

Launch the Messages app and select a group chat from the sidebar. Select the information icon in the upper right corner of the chat window, or press Command + I.

Scroll down the group menu, select Leave this conversation, and then select Leave.

The “Leave this conversation” option will be unavailable or grayed out in SMS/MMS groups. Similarly, you can’t leave an iMessage group with three members (or fewer), even if all members use Apple devices. If you can’t get out of an annoying group, it’s best to disable or disable the group.

Disabling a group disables notifications of new messages in a group conversation. Continue to the next section to learn how to turn off group texts for iMessage and SMS/MMS on Apple devices.

How to Mute Group Chat

It’s very easy to mute text conversations in the Messages app. We’ll show you how to do it on supported Apple devices.

Mute group chats on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Launch the Messages app, open a group chat, and tap the group’s image at the top of the screen. Scroll down the group menu and turn on Hide Alerts.

Alternatively, open Messages, swipe left on the group preview, and tap the crossed-out bell icon. The same icon should appear in the group preview, telling you that the group is disabled/muted.

Mute group chats on Mac

Open Messages and select the group message thread in the sidebar. Select the information icon in the upper right corner of the chat, scroll down the menu and check the Hide Alerts box.

Alternatively, open Messages, right-click the group chat thread in the sidebar, and select Hide Alerts.

There is a third way to turn off text conversations on Mac computers. Open a chat in Messages, select “View” from the menu bar, and uncheck “Use alerts in this conversation”.

You should no longer receive message notifications from the group. Follow the same steps to unmute a group text message if you change your mind.

Leave or Mute at Will

Apple doesn’t notify other members when they leave a group or mute a group. Leaving a group does not remove the conversation from your device. You can access (old) messages in the group at any time, but you will not receive new messages from the chat. To rejoin a group conversation, contact any member of the group to add you to the chat again.