When it comes to staying in touch, the iPhone is one of the most convenient, efficient devices you can get. You can store a nearly unlimited amount of contact information on an iPhone, and accessing your phone book is incredibly simple and intuitive.
Under each contact name you can store things like phone numbers, email addresses and even a person’s photo if their number is linked to a social media account.
Sometimes, you may even find that you have numbers stored in your iPhone that you haven’t called in years. Maybe you just forgot the number was there or never got around to deleting it, but either way there’s no good reason to keep a number stored if you don’t speak to the person much anymore.
In most cases, you can easily delete a number by opening your Contacts, selecting the person’s name and performing a basic delete.
Specifically, if you begin typing the contact’s name in the Messages app, you’ll see that your phone will still suggest them as a contact. It can be a little bit inconvenient if there is someone that you’d rather not call, or no longer wish to communicate with anymore.
Via howtogeek.com
This comes as a result of a feature built into every iPhone called Recents. Recents is a way of the iPhone attempting to remember as much information as possible, and backing up numbers in case of an accidental delete.
When you access a contact enough, the phone will begin to suggest it automatically regardless of it has been deleted.
It may be useful for some people, but in other cases you may truly want a number removed from your smartphone for personal reasons or to save space. Luckily, there are a few ways to permanently delete a contact from both your contacts as well as from your iPhone’s Recents feature.
How to Delete a Contacts on iPhone
Performing a basic delete will only remove a contact from your Contact List, but still needs to be done before permanently deleting a contact. To delete a contact from you Contact List, simply follow these steps:
- Open the Contacts app.
- Scroll to the name you wish to delete.
- Tap “Edit.”
- Scroll to the bottom of the screen.
- Tap “Delete contact.”
- Confirm the deletion by hitting “Delete contact” again.
- This number will now be removed from your Contact List.
How to Remove Recents from iPhone Messages
Via imyfone.com
Now that you have deleted the contact from your Contact List, you can now permanently delete it from your iPhone. It’s very easy and can be done by following these steps:
- Open the Messages app.
- Begin typing the name of the contact you wish to permanently delete.
- When the person’s name or number appears in the list of recent contacts, tap the Info icon on the right side of the screen.
- Tap “Remove From Recents”.
- The contact will then be removed from your iPhone permanently.
Delete Contact from iCloud
Usually, deleting a contact from your iPhone will also delete it from your iCloud, but only if your device is synced. If your device is not synced to your iCloud, the number will remain saved and could be added back to your contact list when you do sync your iPhone with iCloud. To remove a contact from iCloud, you can try these steps:
- Open your web browser.
- Go to iCloud.com.
- Log in using your Apple ID (you may have to do the two-factor authentication).
- Open the Contacts app.
- Select the contact you wish to delete.
- Click on “Edit.”
- Click on “Delete Contact”.
- Confirm your delete.
If you’ve followed all of these steps, you will have permanently deleted a contact from you iPhone. The iPhone will always remember a contact in either its Contacts or through its Recents feature. If you feel the need to completely remove a number, you’ll have to remove it from both parts of the iPhone memory.
However, removing a contact from your Contacts, your Recents and your iCloud account will make it impossible to recover. Be sure before you remove the number from all three locations that you really want it gone.