[hnauz]

There is no way to massively delete your past messages. In addition to that:

1. If you close a private message window and are not friends with the person or share a server with them, there is no way to open it again, so you've lost access to that chat history and can't delete your messages from there.

2. If you get banned from a server, you lose access to that server's history and can't delete your messages from it.

3. If you delete your account, your messages are not deleted and stay in all private conversations and servers forever.

Their data management is simply terrible. Personally, I would've deleted my account already, but I don't feel comfortable knowing I can't delete my past messages and that they may add that option later.

[Spivak]

How does allowing you to delete your messages jive with the UX of other users?

If every user you sent a message to had a copy of your message would you expect those to be deleted as well? Isn't that the recipient's data?

Assuming you answered no is there a material difference when you store a single copy and do reference counting?

Discord's UI might be lacking but allowing you to delete messages authored by you but ownwed by another is already pretty privacy oriented.

[sethdj]

I'm a bit confused about 1. First, you can't private message someone if you're not friends and/or don't share a server. Second, all DMs are placed under the DM menu and are visible until you delete them.