How to delete chat history in Skype

If you want to make sure that your Skype history stays personal, you can erase recent calls and IM lists from the application.

Skype keeps a record of your recent calls and instant messages. This can be useful if you want to pick up on a previous conversation with someone but you might be worried about your Skype activity being seen by someone else.

It’s not always obvious how to clear your chat history in Skype though, and often the feature is well hidden. So, here’s a guide to how to erase call and message logs in Skype for all the major systems:

Delete chat history in Skype for Windows

1. Access recent chats

Skype for Windows keeps a record of your most recent text and voice chats, which you can view by choosing ‘Recent’ from the ‘View’ menu.

2. View recent conversations

You most recent chats are displayed in the left-hand side bar and information about the conversation can be retrieved just by clicking on the contact’s name.

3. Delete chat history

To delete your conversation history in Skype, go to ‘Options’ and highlight the ‘Privacy’ tab. In the ‘Keep history for’ section you can remove the log by clicking the ‘Clear history’ button. Here, you can also choose how long you want Skype to keep your chat history for. You can select ‘None’ and the application will never save recent conversations.

4. Hide individual conversations

If you only want to wipe a particular exchange in your history you can do this by right-clicking on the contact’s name in the ‘Recent’ sidebar then choosing ‘Hide conversation’. You can unhide conversations again by going to ‘Show hidden conversations’ in the ‘View’ menu.

Delete chat history in Skype for Android

1. Access recent chats

Click on the ‘Recent’ icon on the main screen of Skype for Android to access your chat log. An indicator on this icon shows you how much new activity is in the list since you last checked.

2. View recent conversations

A list of all recent call and IM activity will now be displayed, along with information about the call, or an excerpt of the text message.

3. Delete chat history

To delete a conversation, long-press on the contacts name in the history window and choose ‘Close conversation’ in the menu that pops up. You need to delete each individual chat record separately.

Delete chat history in Skype for iPhone

1. Access recent chats

Recent call history in the iOS version of Skype is displayed in the Messages tab, which you’ll find along the bottom of the screen.

2. Delete chat history

You can delete a conversation in Skype for iPhone simply by holding your finger on the contact name and swiping to the left. A ‘Delete’ button will appear and you can press this to wipe it off the log.

3. Alternative method

You can also remove chat records by clicking the ‘Edit’ button within messages. Here you can toggle the Delete button using the stop sign icons. Don’t be fooled: it looks like you can delete individual messages but you can’t. You still need to mark and delete each record individually.

Delete chat history in Skype for Mac

Your recent Skype chats appear in the sidebar of the interface, underneath the contacts list. You can remove recent chat history and delete conversations in Skype for Mac by going to the ‘Conversations’ menu and choosing ‘Delete conversation’ (will remove the entire conversation) or ‘Clear Recent’ (will hide the details of the conversation in the Recent menu.