What Are OTP Messages And Should You Set Them Up To Auto-Delete On Android?

Whether you know them by name or not, you've more than likely received an OTP message on Android. In fact, you've likely requested one, two, or hundreds of them from various organizations in order to get into 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's one small issue with this little bit of added security, though: It's really easy for the messages to fill-up your inbox. If not deleted in a timely manner, you'll see more texts from bots than friends and family leftover in your inbox.

There are a lot of different messaging apps out there. If you're an Android user, you can download Samsung Messages, Google Messages, Handcent, WhatsApp, and so many others. But only Google, along with its many security features, has made it easy for OTPs to go away automatically. Since they're texts that have no purpose after their first use, do you want your phone to get rid of them automatically? It's up to you, but we recommend enabling Google's nifty feature to help clear out those now-useless OTP text codes.

If you're on Android using Google Messages, it's very simple to set it up so all of your OTP messages delete themselves after they've been in your inbox for 24 hours. Follow these few steps to make your life just a little bit easier:

1. Open Google Messages.
2. Tap on your profile picture.
3. Open up "Messages settings."
4. You shouldn't have to scroll down, but look for "Message organization," and then click on it.
5. There's only one option available and it's "Auto-delete OTPs after 24 hrs."
6. Tap the toggle switch beside the option.

Once the toggle switch moves to the right, OTPs won't stay in your inbox any longer than a day. So if you forget or are too lazy to delete them manually, these texts will head straight to the trash on their own, courtesy of this Google Messages setting. There are few things more freeing than an organized inbox, free of clutter. It's worth noting that this feature has come and gone repeatedly, and it's not available to users in every region. So if you can't find it in the settings, then that's likely the reason.