When you clear a Snapchat conversation does it clear it for both people?

Snapchat is a popular social media app that allows users to send photo and video messages that disappear after being viewed. One of Snapchat’s key features is that conversations are ephemeral – once a snap is viewed, it is cleared from the receiver’s inbox. However, what happens when you actively clear a Snapchat conversation? Does it remove the messages from both sides of the conversation?

When you clear a Snapchat conversation, it only clears the messages from your inbox, not the other person’s. So if you clear a conversation you had with a friend, the snaps you sent them will still be visible in their inbox until they view and clear them. Clearing a conversation only removes the snaps from your perspective.

This one-sided clearance can lead to some confusion, as your friend may wonder why their snaps to you are gone while the ones they received from you are still there. But it’s simply how Snapchat was designed – to give users individual control over which conversations they want to remove, without affecting what others see.

There are a few reasons why Snapchat made clearing conversations a one-sided action:

Privacy – Snapchat wants to give users full control over their own inboxes and what conversations are visible to them. Forcing two-way clears could allow users to delete conversations from someone else’s inbox without their consent.
Context – One person may want to clear a conversation from their perspective for personal reasons, like deleting old or embarrassing messages, even if the other person doesn’t have a problem with keeping them.

User experience – It avoids unwanted surprises or confusion if conversations disappeared without explanation from someone else clearing them.

Overall, while asymmetric clearing may seem odd compared to platforms like text messaging, it makes sense given Snapchat’s ephemeral messaging style and focus on individual user control. The recipient has total control over their inbox and ability to view snaps you send until they choose to clear them.

When You Clear a Snapchat Conversation

When you decide to clear a Snapchat conversation, it’s important to understand exactly what that does behind the scenes. Here is a detailed breakdown:

The conversation is removed from your inbox, and any snaps sent or received no longer appear.
Your messages are deleted from Snapchat’s servers and databases for your account.
Any unopened snaps from the other person are deleted before being viewed.

The cleared conversation disappears from your chat list or favorites.
Your Snapchat score decreases based on the number of snaps cleared.
The actual conversation and all messages remain intact and visible from the other person’s perspective.

Unopened snaps you sent still appear in the recipient’s inbox until opened.
The recipient’s ability to view and clear the conversation themselves is unaffected.

Essentially, clearing a conversation erases it entirely from your side, but doesn’t touch what the other person still sees or has access to. It’s like deleting one copy of the conversation, but the other one remains accessible.

Why Only Your Side is Cleared

This one-sided effect occurs because clearing chats is an account-specific action. When you access your Snapchat inbox, you are looking at conversations stored under your unique user profile.

Other messaging apps may link conversations across accounts or devices so clearing is synchronized. But Snapchat stores each user’s conversations separately. So clearing or deleting happens independently for your account only.

Technically, Snapchat would have to actively delete that conversation from the other person’s account to make clearing two-sided. This would involve removing messages without permission from someone else’s inbox, creating privacy issues.

Snapchat opted not to take that approach. By isolating accounts, users maintain full control over their own inboxes and snap accessibility.

The Recipient’s Perspective

When you clear a Snapchat conversation, it has no effect on what the recipient sees in their inbox or chat list on their end. Here’s what the experience looks like for them:

All the snaps you sent them remain visible and accessible in their inbox.

Any messages they sent you are still cleared because you viewed them.
Your chat appears in their list as usual, with cleared indicator if chat history is on.
They have no indication that you cleared the messages on your end.

They can still open and view snaps you sent until they clear them.
Their chat settings like how long snaps are re-playable remain the same.

The entire conversation looks normal and intact from their view. Only if they have chat history enabled would they see the “cleared” note by your name. But all sent snaps stay available.

This allows the other user to continue referencing the conversation if needed. It avoids confusing situations where their access is suddenly cut off because you cleared on your end.

When Clearing is Two-Sided

In some specific situations, clearing a Snapchat conversation does remove it for both recipients:

Group chats – Clearing a group chat deletes the entire conversation for all participants. This avoids inconsistencies in a shared chat.

Story replies – If you reply to someone’s public story then clear it, this clears it from their perspective as well since it’s tied to their story.
Chat backups – If you or the recipient has chat backup enabled, clearing chats syncs to the saved backup.
Both parties clear – If both you and the other person independently clear the conversation, then it’s fully deleted on both ends.

So group chats, public replies, backups, and two-sided independent clearing are the exceptions where clearing becomes two-way. In normal 1-on-1 chats, it remains confined to just your account.

How To Clear Conversations

Wondering how you actually clear conversations when using Snapchat? Here are the steps:

On Android

Open the Snapchat app and tap your profile icon in the top left corner.

Tap the gear icon to access your Settings.
Scroll down and select Clear Conversations.
You will see a list of your recent conversations. Tap the red circle with a line through it beside any chats you want to clear.

Confirm by tapping Clear when prompted.

On iOS

Open Snapchat and tap your profile icon in the top left.
Tap the gear icon to go to Settings.

Scroll down and tap Manage, then tap Clear Conversations.
Tap the red circle next to any conversations you want to delete.
Confirm clearing the selected chats.

You can also clear chats directly from your inbox by swiping right on a conversation, tapping More, then choosing Clear Conversation. Just be aware this only deletes your side!

Clearing vs Blocking

When trying to remove a conversation from Snapchat, two options are clearing chats vs blocking a user. Here’s the key difference:

Clearing – Deletes the conversation from your inbox, but the recipient can still send you new snaps.

Blocking – Prevents the user from contacting you or viewing your stories. But your existing chat history remains visible until cleared.

So clearing is retrospective, removing past snaps. Blocking stops future communication. You can use both for an old conversation you want completely gone and no new messages.

Should You Clear or Block?

Whether to clear chats, block a user, or both depends on your specific situation and goals:

If you just want to remove old embarassing snaps or wipe the history, clearing is likely sufficient.
Block when you want to prevent new snaps from someone, like an ex or former friend.
Use both clearing and blocking when removing someone fully from contacting you and seeing past chats.

Blocking may create more social ramifications or questions from the other person. Clearing chats is more private and unnoticeable to the sender.

Does Clearing Delete Media?

When clearing a Snapchat conversation, any media or snaps exchanged remain saved on your device and the sender’s device. Only the conversation history and access to unopened snaps is deleted.

For instance, any photo or video snaps that you opened from the other user will still be accessible in your phone’s local storage. And any unopened snaps you sent are still saved on their device after clearing.

Permanently deleting those Snapchat media files requires manually removing them from your phone’s storage outside the app. On Android that’s in the /Snapchat/ folder, on iOS it’s in /Media/Snapchat/.

You also need to delete the Snapchat media cache using the app’s settings to fully purge any trace of the visual content.

So clearing chats simply disconnects the media from the conversation – but that media lives on separately unless taken care of externally.

When Media Is Deleted

In some cases, clearing a Snapchat conversation does also delete associated media:

If either user has Snapchat Plus, clearing chats deletes unopened snaps from the server.
Any media from snaps that exceeded their timer and expired is deleted.

If you clear chat before the other user views your snaps, those media files are deleted.

Essentially if the media no longer has an intact snap association or expired per Snapchat’s rules, then clearing chats removes any server copies. But local device copies remain in storage either way.

Getting Cleared Chats Back

Is it possible to retrieve cleared Snapchat conversations? Unfortunately, there is no built-in way to recover chats after clearing them from your inbox.

Some methods that may work to restore cleared Snapchat conversations include:

Restoring your phone from an iTunes or iCloud backup that contained the chats.
Using data recovery software to scan your device storage for Snapchat message files.

Asking the other person to take screenshots of the conversation on their end.

But these recovery solutions are limited. The most reliable way to preserve important Snapchat messages is to screenshot them before clearing the conversation.

Enabling Chat Backup

One way to protect against losing Snapchat messages is enabling the Chat Backup feature:

Chat Backup saves all conversations to your iCloud on iOS or Google Drive on Android.
Chats are automatically archived and synced across linked devices.
Clearing conversations also deletes them from backed up archives.

You can restore chats by disabling then re-enabling Chat Backup.

So turning on Chat Backup provides some safeguard if you clear an important conversation and want to retrieve it. But screenshots are still the most foolproof insurance.

Conclusion

Clearing Snapchat conversations only deletes the messages from your own account and inbox. The recipient retains full access to snaps you sent until they choose to clear them. The one-sided effect comes from Snapchat isolating accounts for privacy.

In special cases like group chats, clearing becomes two-sided. But for standard one-on-one conversations, the chat only disappears from your perspective when cleared. Understanding this behavior allows managing your inbox while respecting the recipient’s experience.

While unintuitive at first, it makes sense given Snapchat’s ephemeral style and goal of giving users full control over their own inbox. The clearing function focuses on removing conversations from your view, without altering what others see in their accounts.