What are OTP messages and should you set them to automatically delete on Android?

Whether you know them by name or not, you have most likely received an OTP message on Android. In fact, you’ve probably requested one, two, or hundreds from various organizations in order to gain access to your accounts. OTP messages, or one-time password messages, also known as verification codes, are typically used for two-factor and multi-factor authorization when logging into an app or website. There is, however, a small problem with this little bit of extra security: it’s very easy for messages to fill up your inbox. If not deleted in time, you will see more text messages from bots than from friends and family remaining in your inbox.

Advertisement

There are many different messaging apps. If you are an Android user, you can download Samsung Messages, Google Messages, Handcent, WhatsApp and many more. But only Google, with its many security features, has made it easy for OTPs to disappear automatically. Since these are texts that have no use after their first use, do you want your phone to get rid of them automatically? It’s up to you to decide, but We recommend enabling Google’s nifty feature to help clear those now-unnecessary OTP text codes.

If you’re on Android and use Google Messages, it’s very easy to set it up so that all your OTP messages automatically delete after 24 hours in your inbox. Follow these few steps to make your life a little easier:

Advertisement

1. Open Google Messages.
2. Tap your profile photo.
3. Open “Message Settings”.
4. You shouldn’t have to scroll down, but look for “Post Organization” and click on it.
5. There is only one option available: “Automatically delete OTPs after 24 hours”.
6. Tap the toggle switch next to the option.

Once the toggle switch moves to the right, OTPs will not stay in your inbox for more than a day. So if you forget or are too lazy to delete them manually, these texts will go straight to the trash by themselves, thanks to this Google Messages setting. There are few things more liberating than an organized, clutter-free inbox. It is worth noting that this feature has disappeared several times and is not available to users in all regions. So if you can’t find it in Settings, that’s probably the reason.