Few things are more annoying than a group text you don't want to be part of. The more people in the text, the more notifications you have to sit through — it's enough to make someone turn on Silent Mode permanently.
Luckily, both iPhone and Android devices offer a few ways to deal with unwanted group chats. Unfortunately, it's probably not the method you're looking for.
There's no way to remove yourself from most group texts
If you're in a group text, there's a good chance that you don't have a way to leave it. Most group texts don't let participants freely remove themselves.
There's only one exception to this. If everyone in the group chat is using iMessage — the texting service that's native to iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Mac — then you are given a way to leave. To do this, open the group text and tap its name at the top of the screen, then tap Leave this Conversation.
But if your group chat contains anyone who's not using iMessage, even if it's only one person, you can't leave it. Instead, you'll need to take a different path.
How to mute or block a group text
If you're in a group chat you can't leave, you've still got a few options for dealing with it.
Mute the group text
This will ensure that you never see any notifications from it, making it much easier to ignore.
To mute a group text on iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, find it in your list of text conversations and hold your finger down on it, then select Hide Alerts. On a Mac, find it in the list and right-click it, then click Hide Alerts.
To mute group texts on an Android, open the conversation and tap the three dots in the top-right corner, tap Group details, and then tap Notifications. You'll be given a few different options you can use to mute the text.
Block the senders
You can also try blocking every phone number in the group text. This ensures that you'll never receive messages from them, but it also means they can't text or call you on their own either.
To block a number on Apple devices, open the group chat and tap its name or the list of participants at the top, then tap the tab that tells you how many people are in it. Tap the caller that you want to block, then select Block this Caller. You have to do this on a mobile device — it's not available on Mac.
On an Android, open the conversation and tap the three dots in the top-right corner, then tap Group details. Select the number you want to block, then tap the three dots in the top-right corner again. Select Block numbers.
Report the group text on Android
Some Android phones also include a "Report spam" feature. This immediately blocks the group text and everyone inside of it, and moves the chat into a separate "Spam & blocked" folder.
But it also sends a report to both Google and your phone carrier about the people in the chat, which can lead to penalties for them — possibly even having their phone accounts shut down. If you're just trying to leave a group chat that's filled with your friends, this definitely isn't the method you want to use.
To do this, open the chat and tap the three dots in the top-right corner, and then Group details. Tap Report spam, then confirm you want to do it.
Remake the group text
Finally, you can ask the person who created the group text to remake it, just without your phone number. This still isn't the same as removing yourself from a group text, but is a way to separate yourself from it.
