Can you see deleted messages in Telegram? Bot, app, limits
Not directly: once the other person deletes a message for both sides, Telegram no longer shows it. You can see it only if a bot connected to your chats saved a copy in time, and that works only from the moment you connect. Messages deleted before you connected cannot be recovered.
Open in TelegramTelegram opens. No Premium needed, and the bot will see only the private chats you choose.
What Flashback does
When the other person deletes a message in a private chat you chose, the bot sends you a card with the saved text or media. The archive is encrypted, so you can come back to it later.
How you find out about a deletion
In Telegram itself a deleted message simply disappears from the chat: Telegram says deleted messages leave no mark in the chat. It does not show who deleted it or when. With the bot you find out right away: a card arrives with the original, the time it was sent and the time it was deleted. The bot does not know who deleted it, because Telegram does not pass that to bots.
Deleted for themselves or for both
In private chats Telegram lets either person delete any message, theirs or yours, for both sides, with no time limit. If the other person deletes a message only for themselves, you still have it: Telegram’s privacy policy says a copy stays in the other participant’s history. The bot sends nothing then, because you can still see the message. A card arrives when the message is deleted for both: then it also disappears from your chat.
Deleted photos, voice messages and files
The bot saves photos, videos, voice messages, video messages, files, stickers and GIFs that arrive in a connected chat after you connected. There is one limit: files up to 20 MB, because Telegram does not let bots download anything larger. If the other person deletes such a message for both sides, the card shows the saved copy, and you can open it in the Mini App.
Deleted after 24 hours, or after a month
A deletion in a private chat has no time limit: the other person can erase a message for both sides after a day or after a year. For the bot that makes no difference. If the message arrived while the bot was already connected, it has a copy and sends a card as long as the archive’s retention, 7, 30 or 60 days, has not run out. If the message was sent before you connected, the bot never saw it, however late or early it is deleted.
iPhone, Android and desktop
You connect the bot in the Telegram app, and after that it runs on a server. So the cards arrive in the chat with the bot even when your phone is off, and the Mini App with the archive opens inside Telegram. You need no separate app, no mod and no login to your account.
What is on the card and what you can do with it
The card shows the saved text or media, the time it was sent and the time it was deleted. Under it are buttons: open the message in the Mini App archive, mute this chat for an hour, and open the chat settings. If the cards get in the way, the bot can remove them from the chat after the number of hours you choose: the Mini App archive keeps everything.
When many messages are deleted
When the other person deletes many messages in a short time, the bot does not flood you with cards but sends one summary: how many messages were deleted, what kinds they were and over what time. From the summary you can open everything that was saved and page on with the “Next” button. Messages the bot does not have (sent before you connected, service messages, calls) are counted on a separate line as “not in the archive”.
What Flashback does not do
It does not bring back messages deleted before you connected, does not work with secret chats, groups or channels, and does not receive calls: Telegram does not pass them to bots.
How to connect
Open the bot and tap “Start”: the chat shows a step-by-step guide with a video. You choose which chats the bot may see and can disconnect it at any time.
More questions
- Will I see messages that were deleted yesterday?
- No. The bot saves only what arrives in the connected chats after you connect.
- Will I see a deleted photo or voice message?
- Yes, if it arrived after you connected: the bot saves photos, videos, voice messages, video messages, files, stickers and GIFs up to 20 MB. Disappearing photos, videos, voice messages and video notes can be saved too: reply to one before you open it, and a copy arrives in your chat with the bot and appears in the archive. The other person will see your reply, but you can delete it.
- What happens if the other person deletes many messages at once?
- The bot sends one summary card instead of a separate one for each message: how many messages were deleted, over what time, and what they were, for example text, photos or voice messages. From the summary you can open everything that was saved.
- Does Telegram Premium show deleted messages?
- No. Premium does not show messages the other person deleted. Flashback does not need it either.
- Is there a bot that shows deleted messages in Telegram?
- Yes, that is what Flashback does. It connects through Chat Automation, sees only the private chats you choose, and sends a card when the other person deletes a message for both sides. It works from the moment you connect and does not bring back the past.
- Why does Telegram delete messages for both sides at once?
- That is how Telegram works: in a private chat either person can delete any message for both sides, with no time limit, and without asking the other. Telegram presents this as a right to privacy. That is why a bot connected in advance is the only way to notice a deletion.
Related questions
Past deletions are gone. The next ones you can see
Connect Flashback before something important gets erased. The bot walks you through connecting step by step, and you can disconnect it at any time.
Open in Telegram