How to Mass Delete Instagram Messages

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Old Instagram DMs pile up fast, and deleting them one by one in the app takes forever. Redact’s bulk DM deletion deletes whole chats, or just the messages you pick, in one run.

Pricing: bulk-deleting Instagram DMs is a Premium feature. Your last 30 days of Instagram posts and reels are free to delete. You can try Redact for free on Instagram, Twitter/X, Discord, Facebook, TikTok and many more platforms!

How to Bulk Delete Instagram Messages with Redact

Step 1 Download Redact.dev

Download Redact for Windows, macOS, or Linux, then create a free account with your email.

Step 2 Connect Your Instagram Account

Once you launch Redact and log in, choose Instagram from the list of supported sites.

Instagram then asks you to log in. Redact never sees or stores your login details. They go straight from your device to Instagram, like a saved login in your browser, and your content stays on your device.

Redact’s Connect Instagram window, saying your password is sent directly to Instagram and your content stays on your computer, with the Connect Instagram button being clicked

Step 3 Choose Messages as the Content Type

After logging in, switch to Advanced using the toggle in the top-right.

The top of Redact’s Instagram page, with the Easy and Advanced toggle at the top right circled in red and set to Advanced, above the Content, Direct Messages, People You Follow, Saved Collections and Likes tabs

Then select “Direct Messages” from the tabs at the top of the form. That opens the DM Selector, where you pick chats from your inbox, group or one-on-one. Pick as many as you want.

Redact removes the messages you’ve sent using Instagram’s unsend, so a deleted message disappears for everyone in the chat, not just on your end.

The Direct Messages tab selected next to Content, People You Follow, Saved Collections and Likes, with the DM Selector and its search box below it, and the Direct Messages tab circled in red

Customize Your DM Deletion With Filters

These filters narrow down which messages get deleted.

Step 4 Filter by Date Range

To delete messages from a specific stretch of time, set a date range.

Choose a start date to delete content made after that point
Choose an end date to delete content made before that point
Use the calendar tool to quickly pick a specific day, month, or year

To reset the filter, click the red “Reset” button.

Redact’s Date Range filter set to All time to now, with Yesterday, Week, Month, Year and All time shortcuts for the start date and a Now shortcut for the end date, both circled in red

Step 5 Delete Instagram Messages by Keyword

Add words or phrases, and Redact deletes only the Instagram messages that include them. Use it for messages about a certain topic or person.

Redact’s Keyword Filter under Deletion Options, which only deletes messages containing the keywords you add, with the keyword box and Add button circled in red

Step 6 Find Offensive Messages With Local AI

Turn on Offensive Classification under Local AI Smart Filters to find messages likely to read as offensive without guessing at keywords. An AI model goes through your DMs and flags them. It runs on your own device, so your messages aren’t sent off to an AI service.

While an AI filter is on, Review & Delete is the only mode you can run in the next step, so you look at each flagged message and delete only the ones you agree with.

Redact’s Local AI Smart Filters panel with the Offensive Classification toggle, which identifies potentially offensive content using a fully local AI model, circled in red

Step 7 Pick How You Want to Delete

Pick one of four run modes, depending on how hands-on you want to be.

Preview Mode surfaces every message that matches your filters before anything is removed.
Review & Delete lets you review the matches and pick exactly which messages get deleted.
Deletion Mode removes everything that matches your filters right away.
Schedule Deletion keeps your inbox clean by deleting new matches over time, based on your rules.

We’d start with Preview Mode so you can check the matches before anything gets deleted. If you turned on the AI filter in Step 6, start with Review & Delete instead.

Redact's four run modes, Preview Mode, Deletion Mode, Review & Delete and Schedule Deletion, with Preview Mode picked and the Start Previewing button below

Why Use Redact to Delete Instagram Messages?

Instagram has no easy way to delete messages in bulk or sort them by keyword or date. By hand, you scroll and open chats one by one.

In Redact you can preview messages before deleting them, schedule regular cleanups and filter down to exactly what you want gone. Your DMs are one piece of it, and the rest of Redact’s Instagram features handle your posts, reels, and following list.

Start Cleaning Up Your Instagram Messages Now

Download Redact.dev and delete the DMs you don’t want anymore.

Redact also works with other social media and work apps, like Twitter, Facebook, Discord, Reddit and more.