Let’s discuss how to enable or disable Owners can Delete Sent Messages in MS Teams using Teams Admin Center. In Microsoft Teams, users are typically allowed to delete only their own messages in chats or conversations.
This feature supports privacy and user control, ensuring that only the original sender has the authority to remove their message. But, sometimes this causes problems, especially if a message is inappropriate, offensive, or breaks company rules.
In these cases, an administrator or team owner needs to delete the message to keep the environment professional. By default, Microsoft Teams does not allow administrators to delete messages sent by other users. This means that without setting up the right policies, admins won’t be able to remove inappropriate or unwanted messages from chats.
In this post, you will find step-by-step details on how to enable or disable the option for admins to delete any chat message in Microsoft Teams. We will show you how to do this using the Teams Admin Center, making it easy to manage chat permissions and keep your Teams environment safe and professional.
Table of Contents
What is a Messaging Policy in Microsoft Teams?
A messaging policy in Microsoft Teams is a set of rules that determines what users are allowed or not allowed to do in their chats and messages
Owners can Delete Sent Messages in MS Teams using Teams Admin Center
You can easily enable or disable the option for admins to delete any chat message in Microsoft Teams using the Teams Admin Center. First sign in to Microsoft Teams Admin center. On the left side, you’ll see many settings options like Teams apps, Meetings, and Voice. Click on Policy Packages, then choose Group package assignments. To assign the policy to a group, just click the Add button and select the group you want.
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Assign Policy Package to a Group
In the Assign policy package to a group window, you can use the search box to search for and select the desired group. After that, choose the policy package you want to assign here. I selected the Frontline workers package. This package is made to apply a set of policies that are suitable for frontline workers in your organization. Once selected, click the Apply button to finish the assignment.
Here, you’ll be able to view the group name, group email, and the assigned policy package. By clicking the Frontline worker policy hyperlink, you’ll be taken to the policy package settings, where you can create and customize a set of policies and apply those settings as needed.
Messaging Policy for Frontline Worker
In this section, you can view the various assigned policies, including the meeting policy, messaging policy, and app setup policy etc. To view the details of the messaging policy, click on the Frontline worker hyperlink next to the messaging policy. This will open the specific messaging policy settings related to that group.
Owners can Delete Sent Messages
The “Owners can delete sent messages” setting in Microsoft Teams allows team owners to delete messages or posts sent by other users within the team. However, this does not include their own messages. If you also want to allow owners to delete their own sent messages, you need to enable a separate setting called “Delete sent messages.”
By default the Delete sent message is enabled. Together, these settings give owners better control over content shared in Teams channels and help maintain a safe and appropriate communication environment.
| Policy Name | Enable | Disable |
|---|---|---|
| Owners can Delete Sent Messages | Toggle the pane to the Right side | Toggle the pane to the Left side |
Global Org Wide Default
The Owners can delete the sent messages setting is part of the global (organisation-wide) default policy in Microsoft Teams. In the window shown below, you can see that this setting is turned on. After enabling it, make sure to click the Save button to apply the changes. This allows team owners to remove messages sent by other users when needed.
Changes will Take Time to Take Effect
updates apply to all users across the entire organisation who are assigned to that default policy. This means any modification like allowing owners to delete messages will affect how Teams works for a large number of users.
- It’s important to note that these changes cannot be instantly reversed.
- Once applied, it may take some time for the new settings to propagate across Microsoft Teams.
- If you later decide to undo the changes, you’ll have to manually modify the policy again and wait for the system to update.
- Because of this wide-reaching impact, it’s recommended to test policy changes on a smaller group using a custom policy before applying them to the global default.
- This helps avoid unintended disruptions and gives you more control over how changes are rolled out across your organization.
- Click the Confirm button from the below pop up window
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End User Experience
Once the policy changes take effect, team owners will have the ability to delete any chat message posted by any user within the team. This action will be just as easy for them as deleting their messages. It gives owners more control over managing conversations and maintaining a respectful communication environment.
- Open Microsoft Teams and navigate to the Chat section.
- Locate the message posted by any user within the team.
- Click the three dots (More options) next to the message.
- From the context menu, select Delete to remove the message.
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Author
Anoop C Nair is Microsoft MVP! He is a Device Management Admin with more than 20 years of experience (calculation done in 2021) in IT. He is a Blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group HTMD Community leader. His main focus is on Device Management technologies like SCCM 2012, Current Branch, and Intune. He writes about ConfigMgr, Windows 11, Windows 10, Azure AD, Microsoft Intune, Windows 365, AVD, etc.