The newest iOS 11.3 update enables a feature that asks if you're sure you want to delete a text message/iMessage once you choose the delete option. It's making me crazy! I tried searching through the settings to remove this deletion confirmation, but can't find anything on the topic. Is there any way to remove this feature?
iPhone 7 Plus, iOS 11.2.6, iOS 11.3
Dave in Oxford wrote:
Every so often Apple comes up with a "Feature" that so small and so annoying that begs the question as to whether they ever consult with a user. YES! Delete confirmation is an unnecessary addition to IOS and we can only hope that some security patch will remove it
No, Apple doesn't consult with users. Instead, they see what users do with their phones and often introduce features based on what they perceive as a real need. This is one such feature. Daily, multiple users come here to these user only forums begging for help to recover an accidentally deleted text message. In most cases, the only way to get the message back is to restore from backup, which often people simply don't have.
So, this very small change was introduced to help the countless thousands of users to ensure when they use swipe to delete that they truly do want to delete the message.
Are you aware there is another simple method to delete messages that will not ask you to confirm you want to delete? Yes, Apple provided the best of BOTH worlds to users. Simply use the Edit/Tap Messages(s)/Tap Trash icon and voila, message(s) delete without confirmation. That can't be any more cumbersome could it? It's three steps, just like it was before on swipe to delete.
tddllcinvail wrote:
Right, all other elements, such as mail, voicemail, etc., still delete the same way with a swipe and delete. It already has a double confirmation, why do we need a triple confirmation?
Oh!, Oh! Call on Me! I like the really easy questions!
Mail: When you delete an email it goes to a Trash folder, where it can be retrieved.
Voicemail: When you delete a voicemail it goes to the "Deleted Messages" folder, where it can be retrieved.
Photos: When you delete a photo it goes to the "Recently Deleted" album, where it can be retrieved.
Messages: When you delete a message, it is gone forever, and is unrecoverable. THAT'S why you need an additional confirmation.
Okay, this is very easy. Having NO option to how this works is the bad UI design. All I, and probably most, are asking for is a simple option to turn this off. This is no different than what has existed in the Mac Finder for decades. "Show warning before emptying the Trash." (see below)
In iOS, this would be a slider button that says "ask before deleting" or something similar. I'm not perfect, but when I go through the actual motion of swiping left with the intention of deleting, I usually know what I am doing.
The fact that Apple has changed the way this interaction works, with the thousands of muscle memory motions that millions of people have developed in dealing with this, is the great frustration. Getting this change, unexpected as it is, makes most educated users go looking for an option to turn it off so it will work like we expect/desire. Having no option is what is so frustrating. Apple, in their ever-overloardy way, most often seems to think they know best. It seems that the bigger they get, the more often they get it wrong. You can see this in the complaints of people (like myself) who have been using their products since the original Macintosh and see how the 'ease of use' has become the frustration of tap and peck to figure out how to use things. Tons of features, useful features, aren't clearly documented or explained. We now have to "google" how to use our multi-100 or 1000 $ devices because there are no manuals or user guides. And even when we know how to do that, we run into UI choices like this that cause great consternation. So fine, people can disagree, but I don't know how one can disagree that the option to turn off this "feature" is beneficial.
macOS and iOS are very different. As has already been explained it is far more difficult to get back a deleted text (and sometimes impossible) than a deleted text message and with iCloud messages on the horizon I'm sure that also figured into this change. It is nice to know their are people in the world, such as yourself, who will never make the mistake of accidentally deleting a text but the majority of people are likely to do so at least once.
If you have been with Apple as long as you state you would know it was Jobs policy to give people what he thought they needed, not what they currently wanted which resulted in less options in the Apple world than the Windows or Linux environment.
They are actually much more amenable to some options now so send in your feedback and ask for an option switch.
I hate this, too! Been trying to figure out to get rid of it myself, but you cannot. Apple - if you're listening, please get rid of this!! - or, like someone else said, give us the choice. Thank you.
No, it doesn't at all if your finger is just above the touch screen. And we have evidence that lots of people do it. I did it once while a passenger in a car. The problem you are having is instead of using a population sampling with a cross section of people you are using yourself as the sole measuring point and you have made it clear that you are perfect. But since many more people who are not perfect in every way use the iPhone than you Apple needs to consider its vast majority of users.
Lawrence Finch wrote:
And it is a HUGE benefit to most users. Just a few hours ago I nearly deleted a text that contained a tracking number that I need. This new feature saved me.
No, Lawrence it is not a HUGE benefit to most users. The overwhelming number in this thread alone do not like it. There are only about 5 or 6 of you that keep saying it is the best thing to happen to Messages. Just this thread alone shows that more people don't like this change than do like it.
Again I say, the former process was a 2-step delete. To say someone "accidentally" deleted something is not really accurate if they had to take 2 conscious steps to do it. They may have mistakenly deleted something, but that's not the same thing as an accident. The accident would be caused by bad UI design that allowed it to happen when the user didn't want it to happen. These messages people are deleting didn't happen because of the UI, but because of the user.
The things people are complaining about now IS the UI and the extra step required to do something that used to be simple. In this case, the user can't do anything about it, and that is the frustration. Apparently the masses are being punished with extra steps because of a minority that goes around deleting (the wrong) messages and then wants a way to get them back.
ericole wrote:
Just so everyone that comes here is clear, there are mainly six people on this thread that think this change is good (gail from Maine, Lawrence Finch, LACAllen, rbrylawski, IdrisSeabright, and Philly_Phan 😕 - I may have misspelled some of them). For those six people who apparently know a lot of people who consciously followed the previous 2-step process and deleted messages, or did it themselves (and some have admitted), then said it was an accident, this is a great thing for them. I'm not really sure how though, because as I pointed out earlier, the visual interface of this new third step doesn't show you what you are deleting and give you a chance to double check, unless you hit "cancel" and start all over.
I worked, for twenty years, in front line customer support for a major U.S. cellular carrier. Yes, I have a very good sense of how many people delete things by accident. And how much it upset them. Until you have had someone through a Samsung Note at your head because you couldn't get their deleted texts back, you don't get to say that almost no one cares.
Most everyone else that finds this threat hates the change and merely wants one thing - for Apple to provide an option to turn it off so it will work the way it did before. 😉
I notice you didn't bother to count how many people posted in this thread who didn't like the feature. Even if the number is ten times, even 100 times the number in this thread who think it's a good feature, that number will still be very, very small compared to the number of iPhone users. Keep in mind also, that people are far more likely to come to a forum like this to complain than they are to drop by and post, "Hey, love the new feature, Apple! Keep up the good work." And then, there are the even greater number of people who just don't care one way or another. So, what we have is a very small number of people who don't like the new feature who keep arguing that they're ideas are better than anyone else's it in a place that Apple isn't reading.
You don't look that old. But old enough to know to read the thread prior to posting. Not.
Go here: Feedback - iPhone - Apple
Save the drama and shouting when you do so. And nowhere did I ever see that Apple claimed this to be a feature, I would call it a change to try to prevent accidental deletions. And good UI design does that. And if you have been around Apple very long you would know it has never been their way to add options.
That doesn't make it one. Sorry, but shouting about something is drama. Ask Apple for the option switch. Given that deleting texts is all or nothing (unlike mail) I think Apple missed 10 years and with iCloud Messages about to be released is trying to catch up.
Jal3377 wrote:
I completely agree too. Looked all over for a way to turn the dumb prompt off. Apple please fix this annoying extra “feature”. 😂
Why don't you tell Apple instead of posting a pointless remark here: Apple - Feedback
GB
I too want to have a voice.
Apple prefers you voice your feedback to the location shown below.
Feedback for Apple goes here >>> http://apple.com/feedback
They may listen to you as a customer, if you do it correctly. Not here.
fyi... here is how Apple describes what this community, not forum, is for, as agreed to by you when you signed in.
Apple Support Communities Use Agreement
They will not debate decisions here. Your contribution was not constructive criticism as also agreed to by you.
Please ask apple to remove the confirm delete message when swiping - its annoying and utterly stupid. Please fix this.
Who are you asking?
The OP has not been here since Feb.
"That" would be utterly stupid, as nobody here can do anything about this.
You can offer feedback as below.
Feedback for Apple goes here >>> http://apple.com/feedback
Or they could have a trash folder
Tell "them" how you feel.
It's a matter of efficiency.
If you are big on efficiency, stop telling us how you feel. Tell the only party who can do something about it.
Feedback for Apple goes here >>> http://apple.com/feedback
After reading about this... yes, it's true. Here's what I am going to do... Start using What's App a lot more. I already use it, but not sure why we all don't switch to it... So fast at sending attachments and gives confirmation for iOS and other users (what a concept).
greggum wrote:
After reading about this... yes, it's true. Here's what I am going to do... Start using What's App a lot more. I already use it, but not sure why we all don't switch to it... So fast at sending attachments and gives confirmation for iOS and other users (what a concept).
That's not a bad idea, except that not everyone has WhatsApp or wants Facebook (who owns it) prying into their lives.
iOS 11.3 - Delete Message Confirmation
