Google Messages is hoarding over 25GB on my phone, and that’s a problem

Published Jul 29, 2026, 9:45 AM EDT Cory Gunther is a senior author and Newsletter Editor at Valnet, covering cutting-edge tech, Android, and more for How-To Geek. He's covered Android, cars, and technology for over a decade. When he's not reviewing the latest gadget, you can find him off-roading in his Toyota truck, fixing said truck, or doing something outdoors with friends and family. He's covered CES, SEMA, and MWC and reviewed countless phones, TVs, speakers, EVs, e-bikes, and more. Before Valnet, Cory worked for GottaBeMobile. His writing has also appeared on SlashGear, InputMag, and AndroidCentral. He's written over 9,000 articles. These days, our smartphones are powerful machines with more cameras and storage than ever before, yet running out of space is still a common problem. But did you know one of the biggest culprits on Android could be Google Messages? I recently realized that Google's Messaging app is using over 25GB of space on my phone, and there's no easy way to clean it up. Between endless photo and video sharing, memes, GIFs, links, and lengthy conversations, Messages is wasting more space than any other app I've downloaded. And I'm not the only one, either: one Reddit user claims Google Messages is using nearly 70GB. Yikes. Below, I'll explain how to free up space, but you won't like the solution. The Google Messages storage problem RCS saves and hides all your media It looks like the problem starts with RCS, Google's newer Rich Communication Services platform that allows our phones to work like and alongside iMessage. See, now Android users can send each other full-size photos and videos, share videos with iPhone users, get read receipts, and have encrypted conversations. That's great, but the way Google Messages handles and stores all that data is a mess. On a Pixel, go to Settings > Storage > Show system apps, then tap "phone and messaging storage" to see how much space it's using on your device. On my Samsung, I went to Settings > Apps > and sorted by size, and saw Google Messages at the top at 25.9GB. If you only have 128 or 256GB of space on your phone, that's a significant portion being used. The reason this is happening is that every photo, video, meme, or GIF you send or receive is being stored somewhere on your phone for Google Messages to recall. And when you send a video, it's now taking up space in your gallery and in Google Messages. To make matters worse, there's no easy way to delete it all and free up space without deleting entire conversations or painstakingly going through each chat and deleting every single photo or video manually. Other third-party text apps let you set an auto-delete option for media after 30 days or after a specific period of time, but no such option exists in Google Messages. On Google Messages, it just saves everything forever, quickly compounding into a resource hog. I'm not deleting the entire text conversation with my wife or family just to free up space on my phone, and chances are you don't want to either. How to free up space in Google Messages One tiny setting could fix everything, but it doesn't exist While trying to free up space in Google Messages, I found no clear solution. Some Reddit users suggest simply deleting entire chats or old conversations. And while that'll certainly work, and you can do it to regain storage space, I'm not willing to delete certain threads. A Google search even took me to a Google Help support page that suggests opening Messages, tapping your profile, going into settings, and selecting "Storage". Unfortunately, that option doesn't exist in the current app. Seriously, it's 2026, and there's literally no way to manage storage inside Google Messages. Several users across the web suggest using a file manager like Files by Google, and navigating to Files > Images > Messages on your phone's storage and deleting everything you see. However, this only shows images or videos you've downloaded from Messages yourself, suggesting you want to keep them. It does not show every photo or video you've sent or received inside the Messages app, and it won't solve your problem. So, how can you free up space in Google Messages? Unfortunately, you'll have to open each conversation one at a time, find each photo or video, long-press on it, and manually hit delete. You can do this in batches, but it's still incredibly cumbersome. As you can see in the image above, I deleted 137 messages at once, all of which were videos in a single conversation. I then had to go into each chat manually, scroll for 15–20 minutes, long-press each video, then hit delete. I did this for about 10 of my most media-heavy conversations and slowly got Google Messages down to using only 16GB of space on my phone. That's still a lot, but it's better than nothing. When you delete a large number of photos or videos from Google Messages, the app may lag or slow to a crawl for several hours. I suggest rebooting your phone, opening Google Messages, and letting it sit for a bit to re-sync everything. If you want to free up space in Google Messages, you'll need to delete entire conversations or manually delete photos and videos one at a time. Another option is to use an app like SMSBackup and Restore, which lets you back up your conversations before you delete them. We need real storage controls in Google Messages Auto-delete or additional options are sorely needed Credit: Joe Fedewa / How-To Geek Oddly enough, Google does let you easily see every single photo, video, or link inside a conversation, but you can't delete them from that menu. It's silly. Open Google Messages, select a contact or group chat, then tap the person or group chat name again at the top of the screen. From here, you'll see options to view images or videos, links, and more. Then tap "See All" to view everything on one screen. Sadly, this is only for your viewing pleasure, and there's no way to delete anything from this screen. You can, however, click a video, then select "See in Chat," which will take you to that day in your conversation so you can remove it. But again, you'll have to do this one at a time. Frustrating. One little setting would fix everything As you can see, there's no easy way to free up space by deleting photos and videos inside Google Messages. All it would take is one or two easy settings to address the problem, but for whatever reason, Google doesn't offer them. I'd love for Google Messages to auto-delete videos in a message after a set period of time, with options of 7, 10, 30 days, or even a year. That way, it would automatically clean itself and free up space. Or just make it easier to see all videos, batch-select, and delete. It shouldn't be this difficult. Google Messages is better than ever these days, RCS is great, and the app is packed with great features. However, I feel like each update is one step forward and two steps back. Google Pixel 10 Pro XL Brand Google SoC Google Tensor G5 Need a bigger phone? The Pixel 10 Pro XL offers just that. While you largely get the same experience as the 10 Pro, you'll get a bigger screen and bigger battery—so you won't be missing out on anything over the standard-sized 10 Pro.