Tuesday, February 17, 2015

How To Delete Conversations in Messages OS X Without a Confirmation Prompt

I get a lot of iMessages and SMSes that are informational, like transit alerts, that I just want to delete after reading them.

With the Continuity features of OS X 10.10 Yosemite and iOS 8, I end up deleting these conversations on all the devices I can get them, which is not really what you want. 

In Messages on OS X, you delete conversations by clicking the little x next to the conversation or typing ⌘⌫ (command-delete). Then you get this prompt:

OS X Messages Delete Prompt

While it would be great if Apple automatically deleted them on all devices when deleted on one device, we’re not there yet, but you can eliminate the prompt!

Just option-click the x next to the conversation or type ⌘⌥⌫ (command-option-delete)

I’m still surprised and delighted when something I want to be able to do is tucked behind an ⌥ option key press. ⌥ option click all the things!